Loaf or muffins? Banana or Pumpkin? It’s four recipes in one!

These muffins/bread are a good nutrient-dense way to use some of that sourdough discard. It employs the “muffin method” where all ingredients are added to a single bowl. Depending on the season, you can make them with pumpkin puree (winter or spring) or with very ripe bananas.

I will often let bananas get very ripe, when their skin is almost completely black (which is when they are sweetest), then freeze them. Subsequent defrosting then makes them perfect for mashing with this recipe.

I’ve also found a way to incorporate “discarded” sourdough starter (the leftover mixture of sourdough flour and water after feeding your starter). Note that because we are using this kind of starter (as opposed to an active, bubbly starter used to make bread), we still need to add chemical “lift” to the batter (that is, with baking powder and baking soda).

Austin Durant

Author and founder of Fermenters Club. I’ve been fermenting food for 14 years.

In 2024, I published my first book, Fearless Fermenting.

When not stuffing things into jars, I enjoy permaculture gardening, cooking, yoga, writing, and studying cosmology and esoteric traditions.