Whole Wheat Sourdough Blueberry Muffins

This is a somewhat specialized recipe because it requires sourdough starter. What I really like about it though is that it is a recipe for "discarded" starter, not active starter. A great way to keep from drowning in starter and not let it go to waste! I've adapted the recipe to include soaking of the whole wheat flour in order to eliminate phytates and make it more nourishing. I've also subbed out the oil and sugar for healthier alternatives. (I've been making it with a white flour starter, but a whole wheat starter would surely work just as well.)

Adapted from a recipe by Mike Avery.

Ingredients:

1 C sourdough starter (discarded/refrigerated starter)

1 C whole wheat flour (sift flour prior to measuring)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

1/4 melted coconut oil or melted butter

1/2 C honey

1 tsp baking soda

~1/2 C blueberries

Method:

In a stand mixer, combine sourdough starter and whole wheat flour. Once the two are thoroughly combined, cover the dough with plastic wrap ensuring that none of it is exposed to the air. Let sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours.

The dough will rise some while it sits. If any of it has gotten exposed to the air and gotten dry, just remove those bits so you don't have little dough nuggets in your final product.

12-24 hours later, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a muffin pan with papers or grease the cups.

In a separate bowl, mix together all other ingredients except for blueberries and baking soda. Then add those to the dough in the mixer's bowl and mix together. Once all the ingredients are mixed and have come together as a batter, sprinkle the baking soda in the bowl and mix batter again briefly to incorporate. Fold in blueberries and scoop into prepared muffin pan.

Bake for 20 min. Makes 8-12 muffins.

I have also made this recipe as pumpkin muffins. Instead of blueberries, mix in 1/2 C pumpkin puree (I add it to the same bowl in which I'm mixing the egg, honey, oil etc.). In addition to the cinnamon, I also added about 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 tsp ground coriander and 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg. Adjust spices to your liking,

Rebecca's Ridiculous Banana Bread

I made banana bread today with all healthy ingredients; I call it ridiculous because substituted everything except the bananas, baking soda, and salt and was convinced it wouldn't come out well. It all started because while I like the idea of Clif bars, I feel like they're so expensive and they give me heart burn. Dried fruit can also be expensive, but bananas and apple sauce are not. So, this is my banana bread with 1/2 serving of fruit and whole grains per muffin (I got 16 muffins). You can add chocolate chips and/or walnuts. When I made this for Katie & Matt, I used ganache chunks - so it was like have pieces of truffle baked into them.

I have listed the recipe with the substitutions I made and the real recipe in parentheses.

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (all purpose flour)
3/4 c sucanat (brown sugar)
2 extra large eggs minus one egg yolk (2 eggs)
1/2 cup apple sauce (butter)
4 medium overripe bananas (2.33 cups mashed bananas)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Optional:
1/4 cup ground golden flax seed
1/4-1/2 cup whole dry oats

Mix everything except flour and soda, then add those two. If you're adding flax and oats, stir those in after the batter is all mixed. Pour into greased/sprayed loaf pan or muffin pan. Bake at 350 until knife comes out mostly clean (the banana might leave a smudge and the chocolate definitely will). This was about 25 minutes for muffins and I think 45 for a loaf.

I thought they would be too healthy tasting and that they would need to be buttered but I thought they were good. Katie asked for the recipe.