If you’re a bread baker and are always looking for new recipes to use up your sourdough discard, listen up. This recipe uses 3/4 cup of discard. And it happens to be my favorite banana bread recipe ever!
I just found my new favorite banana bread recipe. I always thought that my favorite would be a traditional quickbread, and one made with oodles of bananas. Nope. This is it. And you know what the secret ingredient is? Discarded sourdough starter!
A few months ago, my beloved sourdough starter (aptly named Puumba), died. I fed it weekly, kept it in the refrigerator, and it seemed to be happy as a clam. However, disaster struck when I opened up my container and it was all moldy. Poor Puumba was unable to be revived, so I threw him away.
One of the generous skating moms gifted me with some of her sourdough discard, which came from King Arthur Baking. I bought a sourdough canister for my new starter, named him Puumba Junior, and have been feeding him weekly. Because I hate throwing away food, I wanted to do something different with the discarded starter.
Lo and behold, I came across this banana bread recipe, and I was tickled pink to see that it included sourdough starter! I whipped up the bread really quickly, and it baked up beautifully. The bread was fluffy and moist, and it wasn’t too sweet or dense like many quick breads.
This is definitely my new favorite way to 1) use up sourdough discard, and 2) make banana bread. Addie gave this a lower score because she’s not the biggest banana bread fan but she still thought it was good.
Enjoy!
Husband’s rating: 4.5 out of 5
Addie’s rating: 4 out of 5
My rating: 5 out of 5
Sourdough discard chocolate chip banana bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon (3 grams) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon (3 grams) salt
- ½ cup (100 grams) oil
- ½ cup (100 grams) brown sugar packed
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup (125 grams) sourdough discard my sourdough discard only came to about ½ cup, so please measure this by weigh (not volume)
- 3 ripe bananas
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips of choice
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Generously grease or line a standard 9"x5" loaf pan and set aside (I used a silicone pan and did not grease or line it).
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, mix the oil and sugar together on medium speed until well incorporated.
- Add in the eggs, sourdough discard, bananas, and the vanilla.
- Turn the mixer to low and slowly add in the dry ingredients. Add in the chocolate chips.
- Transfer the dough to your prepared baking pan. Sprinkle additional chocolate chips on top if desired.
- Bake in your preheated oven for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.
- Allow the bread to cool before serving.