Blueberries & Cream Sourdough Muffins: How to Use Sourdough Discard

Here is yet another sourdough discard use! These are my flavorful, fruity, sweet, and tangy blueberries & cream sourdough muffins. A great breakfast or snack food heated with a pat of butter or perfect as a grab-and-go out the door munchy. Freeze and heat in the microwave or thaw in a lunch box or on the counter. Sweet enough to eat as a dessert.

Why Use Sourdough Discard in Muffins?

As baked items, muffins and other quick breads seem like natural foods in which to use sourdough discard. We have flour, a liquid, and no need for activated yeast. I realized I could fairly easily create this recipe based on some of my favorite regular quick bread versions.

Unlike all the math conversions I did with my Sweet Sourdough Pancakes, I tried a one-for-one sub of the liquid with straight 50/50- flour/liquid ratio sourdough. Surprisingly, it WORKED. While I was prepared, I didn’t have to do any math conversions to get the batter at the right consistency.

Making the Blueberries & Cream Sourdough Muffins

Once I typed up the recipe with what I thought would taste good, I made the muffins and adjusted some ingredient quantities slightly and made them again. Here’s how the final version turned out!

LOTS of Ingredients BUT OH, So Yummy!

This is definitely an indulgent muffin… oil, butter, AND whole milk yogurt?!?! They’ll make you so happy, you’ll be dancing while eating them (a way to burn some calories) 😊.

First Step: Mix Sugar & Most of the Wet Ingredients

To begin, stir sugar with most of the wet ingredients (EXCEPT sourdough discard and yogurt) along with the zest. If you make quick breads often, then you know most recipes instruct alternating wet and dry ingredients to create a smooth batter thus eliminating over mixing. Another reason is to allow the dry ingredients time to soak in the wet without being “overwhelmed”. In this recipe, we are following that pattern, BUT we’re saving SOME of the wet ingredients until the end without the typical alternating. Interesting huh?

Wet Ingredients TIP!

When adding eggs to fat, be sure all ingredients are at the same temperature (room temperature is roughly 68˚F-75˚F). Then, emulsify them by stirring them well adding one egg at a time. Since oil and water don’t mix well (think of separated salad dressing), we have to treat fat and eggs like oil and water. They will curdle and separate if NOT at the same temperature and NOT emulsified in stages.

Second Step: Add Dry Ingredients

To continue, add the dry ingredients. You could whisk them separately in another bowl, but I didn’t see the need. Since my batter was pretty wet, there was minimal chance for any ingredient concentrations (which is why some recipes instruct mixing wet and dry ingredients separately). I just added them all to the wet ingredients before stirring.

Third Step: Add Sourdough Discard & Yogurt

Once the ingredients have been well combined, add the sourdough discard and yogurt (you could use sour cream instead). Just add them to the top of the batter and fold them in.

Compare the photos below before and after adding the final wet ingredients. The first pic shows a wet dough consistency similar to bread dough. The second illustrates more of a very thick batter consistency.

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Fourth Step: Fold in Blueberries

While I used blueberries, you could certainly add blackberries, chunks of strawberries, or pretty much any other fruit or combination that you like. I prefer to use semi-frozen fruit in this recipe because they hold their shape without getting smashed while manipulating the batter. I just place my fruit in a bowl as I begin making the recipe and by the time I’m ready to add the fruit, they are semi-frozen.

All mixed in… a semi-frozen fruit will leave you with pretty colorful swirls.

Scoop into Muffin Cups & Sprinkle on Sugar

When you add the batter to the muffins cups, fill the cups up to the TOP. It’s okay if the batter is taller than the cup itself. The batter will rise but not too much. You’ll get the traditional muffin top most…(ALL?) of us love. Sprinkle some sugar on top. Sanding sugar would be great because they are larger sugar crystals, but I just used regular cane sugar here.

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Bake at 2 Different Temperatures Separately

Place the muffin pan in the oven preheated at 425˚F / 220˚C for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350˚F / 177˚C for another 15-18 minutes until golden brown. My baking time required a full 18 minutes for a nice brown top.

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Why Temperature Change?

The reason for starting the bake at a high temperature is so the sugars can begin to caramelize providing a deeper level of flavor to the overall taste. We need to take down the temperature half way through the bake, because the batter is thinner than a bread dough and needs a lower temperature at which to bake completely through without burning.

Final Product!

Notice the brown coloring on the exterior from baking initially at a high temperature. The semi-frozen blueberries are plump, juicy, and beautiful. Even with standard cane sugar, you can see a little sparkle.

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Final Thoughts

Baker’s Perspective

While there are quite a few ingredients, this was a fun recipe to create. Sometimes I just want to make a rich, indulgent bread… if you’re going to make a quick sweet bread, might as well go all out without skimping. 😉

How to Make These Lighter

If you want to cut back on some of the fat and calories in this bread, you could certainly substitute applesauce for the oil and use egg whites or a egg substitute for half or all of the eggs. You could use fat-free yogurt or sour cream instead of full-fat Greek yogurt or eliminate it and add milk or water, if needed, for the right texture. If they are too sweet, just cut back on the sugar by 1/4 to 1/2 cup.

Taster’s Perspective

Due to the gluten in the flour, I did not taste this muffin. As usual, Scott was happy to step in for my taste buds. He certainly found them sweet and full of flavor. The freshness from the blueberries cut some of that sweetness. He enjoyed eating them for dessert heated with butter. Overall, he likes this muffin recipe and is happy to continue eating them. 😊

For a visual of each step of the recipe, check out my 4-minute video “Blueberries & Cream Sourdough Muffins“.

Interested in some other sourdough recipes? Check these out with more to come!

New Zealand’s Potato Sourdough Starter & Bread

Sweet Sourdough Pancakes

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