I actually try to feed my sourdough in such a way that as little as possible is left over. He is fed once a week and lives in the fridge the rest of the time. But sometimes life gets in the way and the starter in the jar just won’t reduce. And every now and then he also gets an extra portion of feed. After all, using up leftovers means waffles, cookies or Italian cantuccini with sourdough!

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Cantuccini or biscotti – what’s the difference?

Biscotti is the Italian word for cookies and means baked twice. Biscotti is therefore the generic term, while cantuccini refers to special almond cookies. Cantuccini originally come from Tuscany. With this recipe, you can either make cookies with almonds that are very similar in taste and texture to classic cantuccini. Or get creative and create crispy biscotti with dried fruit, nuts or chocolate.

Using up leftovers: Biscotti with sourdough discard

Sourdough cantuccini is one of my favorite leftover recipes. They only need a few ingredients and it’s not just sourdough discrad that finds a new home. It’s also the perfect occasion to browse through the furthest corners of the pantry. All kinds of nuts and dried fruit go well in the crunchy biscotti, but you certainly can’t go wrong with a chocolate chip or two either. For an extra chocolaty version, add a teaspoon of cocoa powder, for example. If this makes the dough too dry, you can fix this with a sip of oat milk. Because eggs are rarely among my (fridge) leftovers, the Italian cookies are even vegan.

Unlike sourdough bread or bread rolls, most recipes with sourdough discard need an additional leavening agent such as baking powder or baking soda. That takes the romance out of it a little, but there’s nothing wrong with a quickie now and then, is there? The crispy biscotti don’t require long waiting times – you can bake them in one go.

Other variations for the Italian biscotti with sourdough

Almond and chocolate cantuccini with olive oil and oranges

For this version, I replaced the oil with olive oil and the hazelnuts with almonds. And because the combination of chocolate and orange always works well, I mixed a good tablespoon of orange marmalade into the batter. Depending on how liquid or firm your starter is, you may have to reduce the amount of liquid because of the marmalade.

Lemon poppy seed biscotti with white chocolate

For this version, I mixed a tablespoon of lemon curd and a tablespoon of poppy seeds into the dough. I reduced the sugar and the additional liquid because of the lemon curd. And because chocolate never hurts, I added three tablespoons of white chocolate chips to the batter.

Ingredients for sourdough biscotti

• Sourdough starter or sourdough discard: Because this recipe contains an additional leavening agent, it is not important how fit your sourdough starter is. It works just as well with freshly fed sourdough as with starter that has been waiting in the fridge for a week. I feed my sourdough starter with roughly equal parts flour and water. I use a mixture of wheat and rye flour. If you feed your sourdough in a different ratio, you will probably need to adjust the proportion of water in this recipe.
• Oil (neutral in taste)
• Sugar and vanilla extract for sweetness and flavor.
• Wheat flour, cake flour or type 405.
• Baking powder or baking soda as an additional leavening agent.
• Almonds (whole) or other nuts
• Water, milk or a plant-based milk alternative.

In three steps: How to make sourdough biscotti

1. Mix all the ingredients to form a dough and leave to rest. Preheat the oven.
2. Shape the dough into two strands and bake.
3. Cut the strands into slices and bake the cantuccini again until crispy.

Helpful tools – My recommendations

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• A Danish Whisk* – especially if you don’t use a kitchen machine. This allows you to mix your ingredients without the whole dough sticking to the spoon.
• A kitchen scale*.
• You can use a stainless steel dough knife* to cut your dough pieces or shape your loaves.
• A cooling rack* or bread, rolls and waffles.
• A sharp bread knife*.

You can find more product recommendations here.