These sourdough blueberry muffins have an incredible texture and flavor thanks to sourdough discard! My recipe takes just 30 minutes from start to finish and makes a dozen beautiful muffins.
Sourdough Discard Blueberry Muffins
Before I talk about these sourdough blueberry muffins, I think I should admit that I might have a bit of a blueberry muffin obsession. If you’ve been following along, you know that I recently shared a recipe for blueberry muffin cookies that is simply incredible (if I do say so myself). I also have classic blueberry muffins, plus blueberry cream cheese muffins. How many blueberry muffins recipes is too many?
Correct answer: the limit does not exist.
Now back to today’s recipe, which I absolutely love. Not only are these muffins full of blueberries, but they have a truly amazing texture; they are so, so, SO soft and tender. The sourdough discard is a key player in creating this lovely texture, and of course, it also adds a beautiful depth of flavor too.
What to love about this recipe:
- Comes together fast.
- No mixer needed (seriously, please don’t use one!).
- Beautiful tall muffin tops, thanks to my special muffin trick (also used in my banana muffins).
- Amazing flavor and texture from sourdough discard.
What You Need
Most of these ingredients are pretty standard, except for the sourdough discard–obviously! Here are the most important ones:
- Sourdough discard. You should have some of this lying around if you’re feeding an active sourdough starter! If you don’t, check out the FAQ section below.
- Melted butter. Not only does melted butter make this recipe super easy to mix together by hand, but it also yields a buttery flavor too.
- Blueberries. Fresh or frozen blueberries will work here, but just know that frozen berries will dye your batter purple. If I’m using frozen berries, I prefer to thaw and drain them before adding them to the batter.
- Sour cream. Similar to buttermilk, sour cream adds moisture, tenderness, and flavor.
- Room temperature egg. It’s important that your egg is at room temperature so it incorporates easily; otherwise, you might end up over-mixing your batter. If you forget to set yours out ahead of time, read my post on how to quickly bring eggs to room temperature.
SAM’S TIP: For a pretty, bakery style look I recommend sprinkling some extra granulated sugar on top of your sourdough blueberry muffins just before baking. Or, if you’d really like to take your muffins to the next level, skip the sugar and add some streusel!
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Sourdough Blueberry Muffins
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until the batter is 50% combined.
- Add the blueberries and keep folding until just combined. Do not over-mix!
- Portion the batter into a lined 12-count muffin tin. I like to use an ice cream scoop for this!
- Sprinkle granulated sugar over the tops (if using) and bake for 8 minutes at 425F.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 350F (don’t open the door!) and bake for an additional 12 minutes or until cooked through.
- Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.
SAM’S TIP: Using two oven temperatures ensures our muffins will have a beautiful rise. We’ll start off high, then reduce the temperature (without opening the door!) to finish baking. You’ll see this technique used in most of my muffin recipes, including my bakery style chocolate chip muffins.
Frequently Asked Questions
These sourdough blueberry muffins were carefully designed to be moist and tender, so they should not be dry at all. If yours are, it’s possible that you over-measured your flour (it’s easy to do!), over-mixed your batter, or simply baked them too long.
Over-mixing will doom any quick bread, muffin, or pancake; it makes them dense and dry. To avoid this, make sure you stir everything together by hand (do not use a mixer!) and stop once everything is just combined.
Sourdough discard is actually a byproduct of feeding/maintaining a sourdough starter. Before you feed your starter, you always discard half of what is in the jar. Instead of wasting that discard (it still has lots of nutritional benefits), I like to use it in other recipes, like these muffins or my sourdough crackers or sourdough pancakes.
If you are interested in baking with sourdough, check out my post on how to make a sourdough starter!
Yes! Just make sure to wrap them really well in plastic wrap beforehand and store in an airtight container. They’ll keep this way for a few months.
To thaw, you can let your muffins sit at room temperature, or you can microwave them for a few seconds.
The muffin liners I’m using here today are my parchment paper muffin liners! They are so easy to make and instantly elevate the look of your muffins.
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Sourdough blueberry muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (187 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter melted
- ½ cup (105 g) sourdough discard
- ¾ cup (180 g) sour cream or plain full-fat Greek yogurt
- 1 large egg room temperature preferred
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups (210 g) fresh blueberries
- Granulated sugar for topping optional
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F (220C) and line a 12-count muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.1 ½ cups (187 g) all-purpose flour, 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon table salt
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter, sourdough discard, sour cream, egg, and vanilla extract until ingredients are evenly mixed.½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, ½ cup (105 g) sourdough discard, ¾ cup (180 g) sour cream, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add wet ingredients to dry and use a spatula to gently fold together. Once batter is about 50% combined, add blueberries and continue to mix, gently, until blueberries are well-distributed and batter is just combined. Do not over-mix or muffins will be dense and dry.1 ½ cups (210 g) fresh blueberries
- Evenly divide batter into prepared muffin tin. If desired, sprinkle with granulated sugar.Granulated sugar for topping
- Transfer to center rack of 425F (220C) oven and bake for 8 minutes, then, without opening the oven door, decrease oven temperature to 350F (175C) and bake for 12 minutes longer/until muffins are baked through. The tops will be beginning to turn a light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean or with moist crumbs.
- Allow muffins to cool for 10 minutes in the muffin tin before carefully removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
Blueberries
Frozen blueberries will work but may streak your batter blue/purple. I typically thaw and drain the berries before using.Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Muffins may also be tightly wrapped (after cooling) and frozen for up to 3 months.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Meghan
These are the best muffins ever!! Everyone loves them and compliments. I’ve used mixed berry, raspberry and add lemon zest. I’ve also replaced sour cream with yogurt or cottage cheese. These are consistent moist & delicious 😋
Amy
love these. ive made several times. the recipe is so easy to follow
Mari
So we love raspberries and white chocolate in our house, so we substitute the blueberries with white chocolate chips and frozen raspberries!! The kids absolutely love them and eat them up like crazy!! I love them too!!
Trish
These are great, and they’re remained great even when I’ve tried experimented with small modifications (due to being out of an ingredient – or trying to bump up the protein – or whatever). Example: adding a couple scoops of vanilla protein powder, adding a lemon (both the juice and the zest), replacing half the flour with dry oats, replacing the butter with an extra 1/2 C or so of the Greek yogurt). They’ve always turned out great! Glad I found this recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for sharing this, Trish! We appreciate you using our recipe and coming back to leave a comment 🩷
Fran
Glad I came across your blog these muffins were superb. I have a daughter who is gluten free but don’t know how to make a gluten free starter. Is it just the same recipe only using 1:1flour would you have a recipe or maybe Ally can share. Thank you so much
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Fran! We honestly don’t know how it would go without trying it ourselves. We typically recommend using a 1:1 flour for making our recipes gluten free, but we aren’t sure how that would go with the starter 🙁
Kristina
By far the best blueberry muffins I’ve ever made!
Christina Thorell
Hello. Do you use the discard cold or warm?
Sam
Hi Christina! You will want it to be room temperature. 🙂
Christina Thorell
Thank you so much for the quick response. I’ve made it a couple of times with my sourdough starter and it was delicious. I have some discard in the fridge so I wanted to make sure I did it right. I’ll be making these tonight.
Erica
This recipe looks delicious! I can’t wait to try it out! Can gluten-free flour be used instead of all-purpose?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Erica! A 1:1 gluten free flour should work fine here. Enjoy!
Tina
How long do you bake them if you make mini muffins?
Sam
Hi Tina! I haven’t tried it, but I would think somewhere around 11-13 minutes would work. 🙂
Tina
made the muffins and there was to much batter for my muffin cups so I spread the rest on a small cookie sheet and baked it along side the muffins both turned out great but my husband loved the cookie sheet because it was like a giant muffin top. So made a second batch the next day with same instructions and added lemon zest and spread the whole thing out on a big cookie sheet husband loved it so much. Very yummy thank you so much for this amazing recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed it, Tina! Love the lemon zest addition 😊
Ally
My husband loves blueberries and I am new to having a sourdough starter – safe to say these were a HIT in my home! My husband now asks for these every week!! Such an amazing recipe 🙂
I’m wondering if a gluten free sourdough starter can be used in this recipe? Thank you for all of your wonderful tips & recipes!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you’ve been enjoying the muffins, Ally! We haven’t tried a gluten-free starter with this recipe, but we think it could work. Let us know how it goes 😊
Ally
Update – I made a new batch using 1:1 gluten free flour & gluten free starter and they turned out phenomenal! i did not have to change a thing! i will never stray from this recipe!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for the update, Ally! We’re so happy it was a success 🎉
Holly Workman
I want to make these with bananas…would you change the amount of discard or yogurt because of the wetness of the bananas?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Unfortunately without trying it we can’t say what alterations would need to be made 🙁
Keira
So good!!! Just made them and they came out perfect!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wonderful! Thanks for giving our recipe a try 🥰
Kay S
Great way to include sourdough in a different way.
Meg
best muffins EVER!
Debi
I made these using frozen 3 berry fruit blend from costco. Some of the responses to them were: “exquisite”, “best muffins I have ever had in my life”, “please make these again!”
Sam
I am so thrilled to hear this, Debi! Thank you so much for trying my recipe, I really appreciate it!!
Misty
These were fantastic! I did sub chocolate chips instead blueberries since I didn’t have any but I’m excited to try it with blueberries! I have a tripple batch of sourdough pizza crust in the fridge that I’m excited to try!
I have a wheat berry grinder so any new whole wheat recipies would be wonderful (we love your whole wheat pancake recipie) Also a sourdough focaccia recipie would be great too (savory and sweet)! You really are the best! I love being able to cook from scratch for my family and you’re the reason why I can!