Is your sourdough discard jar full and you don’t know what to do with it? Look no further than these soft and moist sourdough discard banana muffins. Packed with flavor, these sourdough banana muffins are a must-try recipe! They are soft, moist, and full of banana flavor. The subtle tang from the sourdough discard adds complexity to every bite. If you have never baked with sourdough discard this is the perfect recipe to start! And I am very confident, that these will be the best sourdough banana muffins you’ll ever make!
Baking Sourdough Discard Banana Muffins
If you’ve never used sourdough discard in baking, it can seem intimidating at first but it’s actually quite simple. Using a 100% hydration starter is usually more convenient because you know that half is water and the other half is flour. With this, you can customize any recipe you want as long as you replace moisture elements (like egg whites, milk, water…) for the corresponding amount of discard.
Another thing to keep in mind is that sourdough discard is acidic, even more so if you use an old one. The acidity can affect the texture of your baked goods, for cakes and cake-like things, the acidity is actually helpful because it can help soften the baked goods.
Why Choose Sourdough Discard for Banana Muffins?
Sourdough discard banana muffins are, in my opinion, the best muffins. And I am always trying to make them better. For me, better means soft and moist with a great flavor and aroma profile.
Baking with sourdough discard not only helps reduce food waste but also adds flavor and texture to your muffins and can increase their shelf life. You can use the leftover sourdough you have after making your weekly loaf, or some old discard that’s been in your fridge for a few weeks. Older, and thus sourer, sourdough discard might produce less sweet muffins because part of the sourness is neutralized by the sugars in the recipe. But the texture will still be great and you can always add more sugar if you want your sourdough discard banana muffins sweeter.
How Sourdough Discard Affects Muffins
The acidity of sourdough discard helps break down the proteins in flour, making the crumb more tender and creating a moist texture in your muffins. It also reacts with leavening agents like baking soda, which gives your muffins a nice lift, making them fluffy and light.
While the tangy flavor of sourdough is very subtle in these muffins, it adds a depth that complements and balances out the sweet bananas. That’s what makes these sourdough discard banana muffins a delicious blend of flavors, creating a balanced and complex taste that sets them apart from traditional banana muffins.
Benefits of using Sourdough Discard in Banana Muffins
Using sourdough discard in baking comes with several benefits. Since sourdough is a fermented product, it can aid in digestion and offer a lower glycemic index compared to traditional baked goods. This makes sourdough discard banana muffins a better alternative to regular banana muffins. Plus, it’s a great way to add more nutrients to your diet, such as B vitamins, thanks to the fermentation process. You can try other recipes like these sourdough blueberry muffins or this sourdough chocolate and orange bundt cake
Ingredients for Moist and Soft Sourdough Discard Banana Muffins
One of the key features of these muffins is how incredibly moist and soft they turn out. This is largely thanks to the unique combination of ingredients. Instead of using milk and butter, this recipe calls for buttermilk, Greek yogurt, and oil. Here is why these ingredients make all the difference:
1. Buttermilk
The acidity of the buttermilk also helps tenderize the muffins by hindering the formation of too-long gluten chains. It also reacts with baking soda, creating tiny air bubbles that will make these sourdough banana muffins fluffier. In essence, the acidity of buttermilk reinforces the effect of the acidity of the sourdough discard.
2. Greek Yogurt
Greek yogurt is thicker than regular yogurt and adds a rich creaminess to the batter. It locks in moisture, keeping these sourdough discard banana muffins tender and moist for longer.
3. Vegetable Oil
The absence of water in oil allows it to coat the flour particles more uniformly and lock in the moisture and preventing these sourdough discard banana muffins from drying out. Oil can also coat the gluten proteins and limit gluten development yielding a much softer texture than butter-based recipes. You can use any oil of your choice that is liquid at room temperature; avocado oil is a good neutral oil, but if you want to give your banana muffins an extra kick you can use olive oil or a mixture.
These ingredients ensure you get the moistest and softest sourdough banana muffins you’ve ever tasted. Whether you’re baking these muffins or other recipes, these ingredients will always help you elevate your muffins.
Role of Overripe Bananas in Sourdough Discard Banana Muffins
When it comes to banana muffins, overripe bananas are a must. The ripening process of bananas brings significant chemical changes that enhance the flavor, sweetness, and texture of your sourdough banana muffins.
Chemical Changes in Overripe Bananas
As bananas ripen, the starches in the fruit break down into sugars. This conversion makes overripe bananas much sweeter and softer compared to green or just-ripe bananas. The sugar content in an overripe banana can be up to 80% higher than in an unripe one, contributing to the overall sweetness of your banana sourdough discard muffins without the need for extra sugar.
Overripe bananas are also softer, which means they integrate more easily into the muffin batter. This creates a smooth, cohesive batter that bakes into a uniformly moist sourdough banana muffin.
What if I don’t have overripe bananas?
If you don’t have overripe bananas you can bake the bananas you have for a few minutes at a low temperature, but personally, I don’t like this method, I prefer to let my bananas ripe naturally. So to ensure that I always have overripe bananas, I just let a bunch go very ripe and then peel and freeze them and collect every overripe banana that nobody would want to eat. I always keep a bag of frozen bananas in my freezer, in our house not a single banana goes to waste!
Frozen bananas can be used for many things such as smoothies, banana bread, oatmeal, or even homemade ice cream! Next time your bananas get too ripe, don’t throw them away. Keep them in the freezer and enjoy them later in these delicious sourdough banana muffins!
How to get tall sourdough discard banana muffins
Achieving tall, bakery-style muffins with a beautiful domed top can be tricky, but it’s all about the technique. Here are my tips for getting your sourdough banana muffins (or any kind of muffin) to rise tall and look professional.
Let the Batter Rest Overnight
Letting your batter rest in the fridge overnight is a game-changer. This rest period allows the flour to fully hydrate and gives the baking soda and baking powder time to activate. It also thickens the batter, which means the muffins will rise more evenly and reach new heights when baked.
Fill the Muffin Cups
To get tall sourdough banana muffins, don’t be afraid to fill your muffin cups almost to the top. Many muffin recipes suggest filling them ⅔ of the way, but for tall muffins, you want the batter to have more volume. Especially if you are not letting the batter rest overnight in the fridge.
Bake at a High Temperature Initially
Start baking your muffins at a high temperature (around 425°F/220°C) for the first 5–10 minutes. The temperature contrast will give the batter a quick burst of heat, helping the muffins rise rapidly. After 10 minutes, reduce the heat to 350°F/180°C to finish baking. This also works with cold batter.
If you’re short on time, feel free to use cold ingredients. The batter will be chilly, but starting with a higher temperature for the first few minutes will help your sourdough discard banana muffins rise taller.
I baked these banana muffins in a jumbo-size pan but you can use any baking pan you have. Just be mindful of the baking time; smaller muffins will bake faster.
These tips will help you achieve tall, bakery-worthy muffins, whether you’re making these sourdough muffins overnight or a fresh batch of blueberry sourdough muffins. So, grab those overripe bananas, pull out your sourdough discard, and get baking!
If you liked this recipe…
You might enjoy these:
Chocolate & orange sourdough discard bundt cake
Sourdough chocolate banana bread
Sourdough Spanish style muffins
If you make any of my recipes let me know what you think! As always you can find me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. I also have a few videos up on my YouTube channel (which I hope I can resume soon!)
Starting on breadmaking but don’t know where to start? Check my Amazon store to see my favorite and affordable utensils you will need. You can make the best bread with simple and inexpensive tools!
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The best sourdough banana muffins
Moist, soft, and decadent muffins using your overripe bananas and sourdough discards
Ingredients
- 300 g all purpose flour
- 100 g sourdough discard
- 300 g overripe bananas
- 180 g brown sugar
- 2 eggs large
- 100 ml vegetable oil
- 100 ml buttermilk
- 85 g full fat Greek yogurt
- 5 g vanilla extract
- 10 g baking powder
- 2 g baking soda
- 3 g salt
- 75 g chopped walnuts optional
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 425°F (220°C). Line a muffin tin with paper liners.
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In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
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In a separate large bowl, mash the overripe bananas. Add the sourdough discard, brown sugar, eggs, oil, buttermilk, Greek yogurt, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth.
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Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until just combined. Avoid overmixing.
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Fold in the chopped walnuts if desired.Fill the muffin cups almost to the top with the batter.
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Bake at 425°F for 5-10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350°F (180°C) and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. See notes**
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Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe Notes
** This baking time is for jumbo size muffins. If you are baking smaller muffins, the baking time will be shorter. Always bake until the toothpick comes out clean, even if it means the baking time is different than the recipe’s.
Sourdough Magdalenas
Hello friends! Today I bring one of my mom’s very best recipes: Magdalenas! But I adapted it to sourdough, it’s a great way to use your discards, #zerowaste people! These sourdough magdalenas are super simple to make. And if you have kids around it’s a great activity to do with them. Especially now, that we need to stay indoors as much as possible.
How do I know this? Because magdalenas are the highlight of my childhood! They’re the thing my mom would bake every time we had a potluck at school, or when we were fuzzy at home because we were bored. My sister and I loved filling the cups and licking the spatula at the end. I have great memories of being in the kitchen making magdalenas!
Magdalenas are the Spanish version of a muffin, but airier. They’re very soft and spongy and not too sweet. My mom never used vanilla extract or anything else to enhance the flavor, and I don’t either. I like to taste the olive oil and the eggs. At most, I add orange zest, but I usually keep it simple.
Magdalenas, the perfect snack
In Spain we eat 5 times a day, aside from breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we also cherish our snacks. So much, that they are considered a meal and even have their own name! One is the “almuerzo” which is the morning snack. And the other (my favorite!) is the “merienda“, which is the afternoon snack. Considering we have pretty late dinners (9-10 pm) a good afternoon or early evening snack sounds like a great idea!
About these sourdough magdalenas
Something that it’s characteristic of magdalenas is their shape. When they grow tall we say they have “copete” and for many people, this is something difficult to achieve. However, I’ve learned that the secret is in letting the batter rest in the fridge before baking. Since the batter is cold, the raising agents (now fully active) can act for a bit longer before the crumb is set, thus giving the madgalenas that final rise.
Letting the batter rest also allows the sourdough ferment. Even though it won’t make the magdalenas sour, some fermentation will increase their nutritional profile and make them easier to digest (The wonders of sourdough, guys!). However, if you don’t have the time, you can bake them right away, the texture won’t change much, you’ll still get delicious magdalenas!
If you’re going to let the dough rest more than 6h, add a little bit more sugar since part of it will be used to neutralize the acids from the sourdough fermentation and won’t contribute to the sweetness of your magdalenas.
The last touch
To get the traditional look of a magdalena, you just need to sprinkle some sugar on top right before baking. It’ll develop a little crust while baking and it’s also a way to decorate the magdalenas.
After baking, let them cool down a little. It’ll help to set the aromas and the structure. And after they cool down you can keep them in an airtight container for a few days.
I did some experiments at home and I tested how the sourdough helped the magdalenas to keep fresh longer. So, I left some outside on the counter overnight (with and without sourdough). The ones with sourdough barely dried out, and overall, they lasted fresh longer than the regular ones.
If you want to know more, check this post where I talk a little about the science behind why sourdough helps in keeping baked goods fresh for longer periods of time.
This recipe yields 18-22 magdalenas (depending on your liners and how much you fill them), but if you want to double or triple it, do so. The recipe is very easy to scale up!
If you don’t have a muffin pan don’t let that stop you! My friends in Bella Cupcake Couture got you covered! Check the post to learn how to bake muffins without a pan or liners!
Let me know if you make these sourdough magdalenas, I’d love to see your creations! You can tag me on instagram or use the hashtag #allyoukneadisbread.
You can find me on Instagram or Facebook and you can also subscribe to my Youtube channel.
Happy baking!
This post contains affiliate links and any sales made through such links will reward me a small commission – at no extra cost for you – that allows me to keep running this blog.
Sourdough Spanish magdalenas
The sourdough version of one of the most typical Spanish muffins
Ingredients
- 300 g cake flour or weak all purpose flour
- 200 g sugar plus more to sprinkle (see notes*)
- 100 g heavy whipping cream
- 100 g olive oil
- 4 eggs see notes**
- 200 g sourdough discards 100% hydration collected throughout a week
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp orange zest optional
Instructions
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Whisk the eggs and sugar until fluffy and light in color.
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Add the starter and break down the blob a little (do it manually if you use your stand mixer, or the starter will curl up the whist attachment)
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Add the heavy cream and the oil and whisk everything until it's combined.
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Sift the flour and the baking powder and add the mixture to the wet ingredients in 2 or 3 times to avoid flour flying everywhere.
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Mix the flour just to incorporate it. If you want to let the batter rest, now it's the time. Cover it with film and keep it in the fridge up to 12h. If you don't want to wait, preheat your oven at 350F.
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When the oven is ready, line a cupcake pan and fill the cups about 3/4 of the way full, sprinkle with sugar in the center (about 1/2 tsp or so).
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Bake the magdalenas until they're golden brown and let them rest in the pan for a few minutes.
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Transfer the magdalenas to a cooling rack and let them cool down to room temperature.
Recipe Notes
* Use a weak all-purpose flour, if it has a high protein content mix it 50/50 with cake flour or your magdalenas will turn out a bit dry.
** You can use eggs straight from the fridge, especially if you are going to let the batter rest for a while in the fridge.
Sourdough Blueberry Muffins
Two words: blueberry muffins. It can’t get better than that. Nah, it can, with sourdough it can! Sourdough blueberry muffins, my friends!
I’m determined to use all my sourdough discards, it is painful to throw it away! So these days the new normal is something like this:
Feed starter – save discards – bake loaf -bake with the discards
The more I bake with sourdough discards, the more I get to test the effect on other food. So far, I can say that cakes and muffins made with sourdough last longer than those without. Nothing new really, sourdough bread also lasts fresh longer time
Isn’t it amazing? Although… after you make these muffins, I doubt you’ll need an extended shelf life, they’re INCREDIBLE!
Why do sourdough baked goods last longer?
Bread and other baked goods are usually discarded when they lose quality rather than when they get spoiled. Bread gets stale kind of quickly, cakes dry and get crumbly… Although there are many factors involved in why and how baked goods dry out, obviously, moisture content plays a key role.
When you mix your ingredients with water, the very first thing that happens is that those ingredients absorb the water. They start making hydrogen bonds and trapping the water within the matrix. Sugar and salt start dissolving, gluten proteins start hydrating, starch granules starch absorbing water and swelling (you see why autolysis helps to develop the gluten? Wink wink)… And all this takes a long time. Much more time than we think.
If we focus on the physical changes of food, rather than the biological changes of sourdough fermentation, we need to pay close attention to how the water is used in baked goods.
Moisture is key
There are two types of water in food: the bound water that’s forming some type of bond and the free water, that is simply stored within the food matrix.
After baking, the free water is going to be the first to go. It moves from the inside of the food (The crumb) towards the outside. Thus, why crust gets soggy over time, and then it finally evaporates and leaves the food.
Bound water, however, it’s somewhat trapped. It can be part of the gluten network, of swollen starch granules, it can be trapped within the fat matrix etc. The amount of bound water (among other things, of course) is one of the things that determines how long the food stays fresh; because its’ much more difficult to separate from the other ingredients. So the loss of quality related to water is slowed down.
Since sourdough baking needs lots of time, the levain preparation, long fermentation times etc. allow all ingredients to keep absorbing water and binding it to other molecules. The flour had many hours to ensure al the particles are saturated with water (I’m assuming a 100% hydration starter here). These bonds survive throughout the whole process; after the food is baked and starts cooling down, the food holds onto these water bonds.
And that’s one of the reasons food made with sourdough lasts longer!
If you’re interested in other food science facts, feel free to send me an email or DM on social media and I’ll try my best to write a post about it!
Back to the muffins!
Alrighty! About these muffins… I made them small for two reasons: 1) because the number of muffins I eat doesn’t depend on the size, so I’d better eat smaller portions now that the gym is close 🙂 and 2) because I don’t have a large muffin tin and if I buy more kitchen stuff my husband is going to make me sleep in the kitchen.
So obviously, feel free to make larger muffins or smaller. Whatever you prefer!
I like to whip eggs and sugar very well, this helps with the airy structure of the muffin and I think the texture turns out super delicate!
Usually, when you make blueberry muffins, they collapse a little after they come out of the oven, it’s normal, that’s because the water inside of the fruits turns into steam while the muffins are baking, and they swell. Some blueberries might burst, and the others, when they cool down, they collapse because the steam condenses. They also wrinkle because the heat affects the structure of the skin.
I like to let the batter chill in the fridge for at least a couple of hours to allow the baking powder and baking soda hydrate well. Their leavening power is activated by acids and moisture. You can leave the batter in the fridge overnight and bake the muffins first thing in the morning!
If you make this recipe, let me know what you think and tag me on your creations! I love to see what you guys do!
You can also follow me on Instagram or Facebook and you can also subscribe to my Youtube channel.
If you have any suggestions or would want me to make some recipes, adapt a yeast-based recipe into a sourdough one, etc, please contact me and I’ll try my best to respond and plan a recipe!
Happy baking!
Sourdough blueberry muffins
Use your sourdough discard to make these delicious muffins!
Ingredients
- 200 g all purpose flour
- 200 g sourdough discards (collected throughout a week)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 L eggs
- 180 g caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp lemon extract (optional- to taste)
- 180 g heavy whipping cream
- 60 g olive oil (see notes)
- 1½ cups blueberries
Instructions
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Preheat your oven at 375 F
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Sift the flour into a large bowl. Take a tablespoon of that flour and reserve
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Add the baking soda, baking powder and salt to the flour and combine
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In the bowl of your stand mixer whip the eggs until they are fluffy and have a light yellow color
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Add the sugar to the eggs and combine
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Add the whipping cream, the oil, the sourdough starter, and the extracts and combine well. Use a spatula if you need to break down the sourdough blob
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Change from the wire whisk to the paddle attachment, add the flour in 3 batches and combine at medium-low speed
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In separate bowl toss the blueberries and the tbsp of flour you reserved and carefully stirr tso they blueberries get a nice coat of flour
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Add the blueberries to the batter and with a spatula stir until just combined (you can put now the batter in the fridge if you want)
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line a muffin tin with baking cups and fill them to about 3/4
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Add some blueberries on top as decoration
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Bake for about 30 minutes or until they have a nice golden color
Recipe Notes
I like to use olive oil because I think it gives muffins in general a really nice aroma. And it’s also how my mom taught me. But feel free to use melted butter or any other oil of your choice!
If you don’t have blueberries, you can make these muffins with any other fruit