Sourdough Banana Bread Muffins
One thing that I absolutely love about sourdough is the endless possibilities it holds. It is the earliest form of bread that we know of, as it naturally creates yeast to leaven rather than the captured and chemically altered yeast you can purchase packaged in the store. Each time that you want to feed your sourdough starter, you must discard most of what it left in your container, and this is simply called the “discard” which is inactive starter. There are so many things that you can do with this inactive starter, such as feed it and create a brand new starter or a "levain, or you could turn it into a different type of baked good that does not need to be leavened on its own. For instance, muffins! Sourdough banana bread has such a characteristically unique taste that I love. I think you will love it, too.
ingredients & recipe:
MAKES ABOUT A DOZEN MUFFINS
1/2 lb butter (1 stick), melted
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3 medium very ripe bananas, mashed
3 tbsp milk or sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sourdough starter discard
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat or spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a standard 12 cup muffin tin.
In a large bowl combine the melted butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, mashed banana, sour cream or milk, vanilla, and sourdough discard.
Begin to add the dry ingredients. You can pre-mix them or begin by adding the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Then add the flour and stir until just combined.
Pour the batter into the muffin tin, filling each cup about 1/2 way. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow the muffins to cool at least 10 minutes in the pan before removing to a wire cooling rack.
These muffins are simple to make and are a wonderful breakfast treat to bake first thing in the morning for your family or a tea time gathering with your friends. They make it seem like a very impressive feat you accomplished, but we both know that they came together in about an hour. I love deliciously rich sweets that taste like you slaved away all day but they are truly so so simple! You can also bake these into a standard loaf pan, if you wish. Just bake for about 50-60 minutes at 350° F.
xoxo Kayla
