Banana Sourdough Muffins

5 from 1 vote

This Banana Sourdough Muffin recipe combines classic banana bread flavor with sourdough starter in an easy, moist, and fluffy muffin.

Prep Time10

Cook Time18

Total Time28

Course: Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine: American

Servings: muffins

Calories: 169kcal

Preheat the oven to 425°F.
With a mixer cream the butter and sugar.
In a 4-cup glass measuring pitcher add the 4 medium-sized bananas broken roughly in half. Beat on low speed until fully mashed. Check that the total quantity of mashed bananas is roughly 1¾ cups.
Add the mashed bananas to the creamed butter and sugar and combine.
Add the eggs and vanilla and combine. Add the baking soda, salt, and sourdough starter and combine.
Add the flour and use a large spoon to mix it in by hand, until just combined.
For extra tall muffins, fill every other muffin cup of a muffin tray.
Add the muffin tray to the oven and reduce the temperature immediately to 350°F.
Bake for 17-18 minutes at 350℉.

Softened Butter: The butter should be softened to a cool room temperature. If you haven't softened the butter in advance, you can soften it in the microwave. Add the butter to a large microwave-safe mixing bowl. Microwave at 20% power for 30 seconds. Flip the butter over and at 20% power add 30 more seconds.
Sweeter Bananas: Overripe bananas are not actually sweeter than ripe bananas. See my Guide to Baking Banana Bread with a link to the scientific paper that demonstrates how sugar changes as bananas ripen.
Banana Flavor: Overripe bananas do have a more intense banana flavor than ripe bananas. However, if the bananas are very overripe that banana flavor can be overpowering.
Brown Sugar: Using brown sugar instead of granulated sugar has no significant impact on the taste of the banana bread or muffins.
Overmixing: Using a spoon to mix in the flour helps to prevent overmixing which can lead to tougher muffins. Over-stirring the batter can develop gluten which you want to avoid (unlike with bread or pizza) as this can create a tougher, denser muffin
Oven Temperature: Every oven is different and your oven might run hot or not hot (you can check this with an oven thermometer), so your baking time might vary.
High Heat Blast: Preheating the oven to 425°F and then immediately dropping the temperature to 350℉ creates a high heat blast. Baking soda reacts to heat, and this high heat blast creates a strong activation which creates a taller, fluffier muffin.