It took me many years of baking with sourdough to believe that I really needed to discard starter before feeding it. I couldn’t bear to throw any away, and couldn’t understand why I needed to. The whole process seemed wasteful. Trust me: If you are going to keep extra starter on hand, you need to discard a portion before feeding it.

Starter, to be well nourished, needs a precise ratio of new flour to existing starter. If you begin the feeding with too much starter, you will waste huge volumes of flour in an effort to preserve this ratio. Or, you will not preserve the ratio and, over time, you will have a weakened starter. So, in an ironic twist, throwing starter away actually saves you flour.

If discarding starter is hard for you, try transferring the portion you’re tossing into another jar, rather than into the sink or compost bucket. This eliminates the possibility of mistakenly pouring out all of the starter, and it leaves you with a backup jar of starter in case anything happens to the first. (I’m always afraid my jar of starter will drop and break, leaving me with nothing to show for my years of devotion.) You can discard the back-up starter when you have more starter to add to the back-up jar, but by then it is less vital and easier to part with.

These small cupcakes taste intensely of chocolate without being overly sweet. They take little time to make and both adults and children enjoy them. When you look at the ingredient list, you’ll see how easy bold baking can be: The chocolate is dark; the cupcakes are sweetened only by dates and maple syrup; and the flour is whole-wheat.

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ounce fine-quality (70%) bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup pitted dates, coarsely chopped (check for pits)
3 tablespoons Grade-B maple syrup
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch fine sea salt
2 tablespoons whole-wheat pastry flour
1-1/2 teaspoons virgin organic coconut oil or butter

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Place the cocoa powder and chocolate pieces into the bowl of a food processor.

3. In a small saucepan, bring the water and dates just to a boil. Remove them from the heat and let cool for a moment. Then add the dates and water to the food processor and pulse once to combine. Uncover the food processor and let the mixture cool for a couple of minutes.

4. Add the maple syrup, egg, vanilla, baking soda and sea salt and puree until smooth. Then add the flour and pulse until just mixed. Gently finish mixing with a rubber spatula and let the mixture sit for 15 minutes.

5. While the mixture is resting, liberally oil a 12-cup mini-muffin tin with coconut oil (or butter). The oil is an ingredient in the cupcakes as well as a lubricant that prevents the cupcakes from sticking, so don’t worry if there seems to be an ample amount in each cup.

6. Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin cups and bake, rotating once, for about 20 minutes (the tops should be firm to the touch). Let the cupcakes cool in the tin for about 10 minutes.

7. Remove the cupcakes from the pan and cool slightly. These are nice served gently warm, though the cupcakes keep for one day, covered, at room temperature.

The Wisdom of Discarding Starter

Miniature Chocolate Cupcakes

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