During isolation the internet seems to be obsessed with two things, sourdough and banana bread (okay and maybe toilet roll and growing spring onions from scraps in a jar). Obviously I have you covered on Sourdough, whether you’ve never tackled it before or whether you want a new recipe to try, and of course banana bread isn’t anything new around here. Hopefully by combining the two I can show a really easy recipe that helps you use the discarded starter, preventing waste, and give you something easier to make than the sourdough itself.

Before we get to the recipe lets talk about the sourdough starter and the discard we are going to be using. If you are using your starter on a daily basis you will have a lot of discard and you might not want to bake with that everyday. Thankfully the discard can be kept in the fridge for a few days, topping up each time you feed the starter, or you can even freeze it. When you come to use the discard it is still important to smell it, if there is any off notes, any unpleasant smells these may translate to flavour in your recipe. If you store your starter in the fridge however you won’t have as much discard, you’ve already reduced your waste by slowing down the fermentation meaning the starter needs a lot less feeding. When I store my sourdough baby in the fridge I find it needs two rounds of feeding to bring it back to health and guess what? If you are filling my feeding schedule, two feeds will give you 200g of discard and that is exactly what this recipe calls for, it’s almost like I planned it that way.

Using sourdough discard in your recipes is also easier than you might think. Most sourdough starter recipes are made to be 100% hydration, that is to say with an equal weight of flour and water. This makes using the discard in a recipe straightforward because, say you have 100g of discard, you just divide the amount in half and take out 50g of flour and 50ml liquid from your existing recipe. Using discard in recipes like quick breads like banana bread or muffins, pancakes, waffles are the easiest things to use but you can even use it recipes such a chocolate cake, where the acidity would give a real boost to the chocolate flavour.

Sourdough Banana Bread Muffins
Makes 12

150g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
225g very ripe bananas (weighed without skin)
200g sourdough discard
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
185g light brown muscavado sugar
2 large eggs
200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan). Line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper liners.

In a bowl add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk together to combine. In a separate bowl add the bananas and use a fork to mash. Pour in the sourdough discard and vanilla and stir until evenly mixed. Place the butter and sugar into a large bowl and using an electric mixer, cream together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until combined before adding the second. Add the flour mixture and gently fold to combine. Add the banana mixture and mix just until you have an evenly mixed batter. Finally add in about 2/3 of the chocolate and mix briefly to evenly distribute.

Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin paper, filling each one almost to the top. Scatter over the remaining chocolate and throw on a few cacoa nibs too if you like, dried banana chips could be nice too.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-22 minutes or until the muffins spring back to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before carefully transferring the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

Kept in a sealed container these will keep for a couple days, they also freeze brilliantly