Banana bread? Tick. Sourdough starter? Tick. Enter chocolate and banana sourdough muffins: an extremely 2020 recipe, combining two of lockdown’s hottest trends and adding chocolate.
I’ve definitely fallen off the sourdough wagon a little – a lack of fridge space for overnight proving combined with not wanting to have a blazing oven heating our already too-warm little flat through summer became a bit much. So although I’ve still been making a lot of bread, it has mostly been yeasted. I’ve been trying to keep my sourdough starter alive though (mostly using it to make pizza), intending to start making bread again when the weather gets cooler.
I started developing this recipe a few months ago, inspired by this recipe from Edd Kimber, and several variations later I am finally happy with it. I find it works best to use not-too-dark chocolate here so it doesn’t overpower the other flavours: I generally use one betwween 50-60%, or a plain chocolate such as Bourneville.
Ingredients (makes 12):
– 100g dairy-free spread
– 135g soft light brown sugar
– 3 ripe bananas, mashed (approx 335g prepared weight)
– 180g sourdough discard
– 1 tsp vanilla extract, or ½ tsp vanilla bean paste
– 180g self-raising flour
– pinch of salt
– 1 tsp baking powder
– 160g dark chocolate, chopped
- Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, and line a muffin tray with 12 paper cases. Beat the butter and sugar until pale, light and fluffy.
- Mix together the mashed banana, sourdough discard and vanilla in a separate bowl. Stir into the butter mix. Add the flour, salt, baking powder and 100g of the chocolate and stir until just combined.
- Divide between the muffin cases and scatter with the remaining chocolate. Bake for 20-25 minutes (checking and turning the tray after 20 minutes) until golden, and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Bryony's Kitchen 