Easy Sourdough Blueberry Muffins Recipe with Discard

Nothing says “Good morning!” like these moist and tender sourdough blueberry muffins. Use your sourdough discard to make the perfect breakfast.

Serve these tasty sourdough blueberry lemon muffins as a stand-alone fast breakfast on your way out the door or make a batch to have as part of a delicious brunch for guests or family.

What is Sourdough Discard

Sourdough discard is an unfed sourdough bread starter. Sourdough starter has to be fed (active) in order to use it to bake sourdough bread recipes. When the starter runs out of the food that makes bread rise, it’s referred to discard.

Why Bake With Sourdough Discard

When baking muffins with sourdough discard you end up with a moist and tender result with a texture resembling coffee cake. Our sourdough blueberry muffins are perfect for breakfast!

The best part is you are using something that would otherwise just get thrown away. If you’re like me you really dislike throwing something away that has another use.

Ingredients For Sourdough Blueberry Muffins

• Sourdough Starter Discard
• All-Purpose Flour
• Salt. I use finely ground sea salt.
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Ground Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Ground Ginger
• Vegetable Oil. Canola will work.
• Water
• Brown Sugar. I use dark but light is fine
• Vanilla Extract
• Large Egg
• Blueberries
• Lemon Juice

Streusel Ingredients

• Old Fashioned Oats
• All-Purpose Flour
• Brown Sugar
• Butter – cold and diced.

How To Make Sourdough Blueberry Muffins

Preheat the oven to 375 F, and line muffin tins with cupcake liners.

In a large mixing bowl, on low speed with a hand or stand mixer, mix together sourdough starter, oil, water, vanilla extract, egg, and lemon juice. Muffins may be mixed by hand too.

Once mixed, slowly mix in the brown sugar, sea salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix until combined, do not over mix.

Add in your blueberries, fold in until combined, being careful not to squish them. If squished, your batter will turn purple!

In a separate bowl, combine the Oat topping ingredients, for the butter, roughly dice this into small pieces before adding to the rest and then cut it into the other ingredients using two forks or a pastry cutter.

Fill prepared cupcake liners 3/4 full with batter, and put 1 Tbsp of the oat topping mixture on each filled muffin.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out mostly clean. (just a few crumbs)

Remove the muffins from the pan when slightly cooled. Finish cooling on a wire rack.

How to Make Streusel

Mix all of the ingredients of the streusel together with a hand mixer or mash together with a fork, pastry cutter, or potato masher.

Serving Ideas

We love a great muffin recipe. They go great with our Ground Italian Sausage and Potatoes or a piping hot bowl of 13 Bean Soup. A simple Orange Salad with Quick Muffin recipe makes a great snack.

Other muffin recipes that we make all the time

Subsitutions & Additions

• Add chopped nuts such as walnuts or pecans.
• Instead of the streusel topping, leave it off or sprinkle the top with turbinado sugar for a delicious crunch.
• Add lemon zest to the muffin batter or to the streusel topping.
• Add a basic powdered sugar glaze with a dash of lemon extract drizzled on each muffin.
• Use strawberries or dried cranberries instead of blueberries.

How To Reheat & Store Sourdough Blueberry Muffins

Best Way To Store Sourdough Discard Blueberry Muffins?

Keep your leftover muffins at room temperature for 2 to 3 days in a resealable plastic bag or airtight container.

How Long Will Sourdough Blueberry Muffins Last In the Fridge?

If you would like to refrigerate the muffins, they will keep in an airtight plastic bag or airtight container for two to three days refrigerated.

Can I Freeze Sourdough Discard Blueberry Muffins?

Yes. Place them in a freezer-quality plastic bag or an airtight container and freeze them for up to three months.

How To Reheat Sourdough Blueberry Lemon Muffins?

Place a frozen muffin in the microwave for 20-30 seconds depending on the wattage of your microwave.

Sourdough Blueberry Muffin Recipe FAQs

Can I use frozen blueberries to make sourdough blueberry muffins? Yes! I’ve successfully used fresh and frozen. I love the organic wild blueberries. They are smaller but pack a lot of flavor.

Make sure they’re not covered in ice crystals. Too much liquid can cause muffins to be dense. You can add them directly from the freezer to the recipe or if you thaw them make sure any extra liquid is drained from them.

How can I make my muffins lighter and fluffy? Make sure your ingredients are room temperature before mixing. That will assure that the muffins properly expand when bakes which is what makes them light and fluffy.

Also, make sure that your baking soda and baking powder are fresh and active. Our Baking Basics post will show you how. Don’t overmix the batter. Overmixing causes muffins to be dense and flat.

What is the secret to making moist muffins? Acidic ingredients help keep muffins moist. In this recipe, the sourdough discard provides the acidity to make these muffins moist.

I also used dark brown sugar. It is less drying than white sugar. You can use light brown sugar if that’s what you have.

Can I substitute melted butter for oil in muffins? Yes, you can substitute butter for vegetable oil. For this recipe melt 5 1/3 tablespoons of
butter and then let it cool a bit.

Tips to Make the Best Sourdough Blueberry Muffins

The muffin papers that I recommend are greaseproof and don’t stick. If you’re unsure of your liners, spritz them with a little non-stick cooking spray.

Don’t overmix the batter. That will make these muffins dense and tough.

Fold in the blueberries, especially if they’re frozen. Using the mixer can break the berries up.

For more lemon flavor, use 1 teaspoon of lemon zest. You can also replace some of the vanilla extract and half lemon extract. Lemon extract can be very powerful so be careful.

Preheat your oven to make sure it’s up to temperature before baking and don’t open the door unnecessarily.

Don’t overbake the muffins. They’re done when tested only a few crumbs are stuck to the toothpick. The toothpick doesn’t have to be totally clean.

Remove them from the muffin tin as soon as you can handle them to stop them from baking.

Let the muffins cool completely before removing the paper liners. They will pull back from the sides and not stick to the muffin papers.

Streusel Tips

Apply the streusel topping right before baking. You don’t want the topping to absorb the
moisture from the muffin batter, which will prevent your topping from being crumbly.

Don’t mix your streusel topping with your hands. The heat of your hands will soften the butter.

Don’t cut the butter too finely into the streusel. That will keep the topping from being
crumbly. You want the butter cold and crumbly, not fine.

Other Sourdough Discard Recipes You’ll Love

Sourdough discard makes recipes soft and tender. If you love soft and tender discard recipes, give our Lemon Blueberry Sourdough Bread, Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies, Sourdough Pumpkin Muffins, and these Sourdough Pancakes a try.

Start your own Sourdough journey!

If you’re interested in starting your own sourdough bread journey, you can start your own sourdough starter. This Overnight Sourdough Bread recipe is my #1 post! Homemade Sourdough Bread with All-Purpose Flour is a keeper too!

Did you make this recipe? I’d love to hear how it turned out! Please leave a comment below and rate this recipe with 5 stars if you loved it. Your feedback helps other bakers and makes my day! Don’t forget to share a photo of your beautiful muffins on social media and tag @hostessatheart so I can see your creations!

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This sourdough blueberry muffins recipe was first shared on 12/11/21. It’s been updated to enhance our readers’ experience. No changes were made to the actual recipe.