Spice up your breakfast with a batch of super soft and tender sourdough pumpkin muffins! The batter takes just a few minutes to stir together, and the muffins rise nice and tall with sparkling cinnamon-sugared tops. Recipe includes a how-to video!
Sourdough Discard Pumpkin Muffins
Sourdough bakers, I have another treat for you! Today’s sourdough pumpkin muffins can be made with sourdough discard or active sourdough starter. They have everything you’d want in your pumpkin muffins: super tender and moist texture, robust pumpkin flavor, and enough sugar and spice to keep things interesting. I just love them!
I kept my muffins simple here today with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar on top, but you could always add a bit of streusel (like my classic pumpkin muffin recipe) or some chocolate chips (like my pumpkin chocolate chip muffins). You can find instructions for adding both in the FAQ section further down in the post.
What to Expect From This Recipe
- Appearance: Beautiful! Dividing the muffins into just 10 liners (as opposed to 12) makes them rise extra tall. We’ll also add a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar before baking for even prettier/fancier results!
- Texture: Super soft, moist, and tender. No dry, crumbly muffins here!
- Taste: Lots of pumpkin flavor with just the right touch of spice, plus buttery undertones and a hint of something extra special from the sourdough discard.
- Ease: So simple and fast to stir together. No mixer needed (please don’t use one!), and an ice cream scoop makes easy work of dividing the muffin batter into your liners.
Note: you can also use active sourdough starter to make these muffins; just make sure to stir it down first before measuring/adding to your batter.
Jump to:
Ingredients
Nothing too fancy here–I’ll go over a few before we begin.
- Pumpkin puree. Make sure you are using pumpkin puree and NOT pumpkin pie filling! They look super similar and are sold right next to each other in most grocery stores.
- Pumpkin spice. Also known as pumpkin pie spice. This is a blend of spices most commonly used in pumpkin pie. If you don’t have any pumpkin spice, you may have the spices on hand to make my homemade pumpkin spice.
- Sourdough discard. This is what you, well, discard before feeding your sourdough starter. If you don’t have a sourdough starter, you can learn how to make one by reading my post on how to make a sourdough starter. Or, if you want to make pumpkin muffins without sourdough discard, just make my classic pumpkin muffins.
- Brown sugar. I prefer light brown sugar here, but dark brown would technically work if that’s all you have on hand, the muffins will just be richer and sweeter (maybe a tad more like pumpkin cupcakes).
- Cinnamon. A cinnamon sugar topping adds a pumpkin donut-vibe to the muffins. It’s the perfect finishing touch.
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!
SAM’S TIP: If you want to use active sourdough starter in this recipe, you can. You will just need to stir down the starter before measuring (and I recommend using a kitchen scale to measure!).
How to Make Sourdough Pumpkin Muffins
- Step 1: Combine the wet ingredients. Whisk the melted butter, pumpkin spice, pumpkin, sourdough discard, sugars, and pumpkin spice until everything is nicely combined, then whisk in the egg and vanilla.
- Step 2: Fold in dry ingredients. Grab a separate bowl and add all of your remaining dry ingredients (since we already used the pumpkin spice). Whisk everything together, then gently fold this mixture into your wet ingredients. Use a spatula for this step and be careful not to over-mix.
- Step 3: Portion into pan. Divide the batter into a lined muffin tin and sprinkle each muffin with cinnamon sugar. Note: this recipe makes 10 muffins, not 12. If you want to divide the batter between 12 liners, you absolutely can! Just note your muffins won’t be quite as tall (and the bake time will be a minute or two shorter).
- Step 4: Bake & cool. Bake for about 18 minutes or until the muffins pass the toothpick test. Remove from the pan after a few minutes to avoid soggy/greasy muffin liners.
SAM’S TIP: Portion the batter into 10 muffins instead of 12! Piling the batter high like this will encourage taller muffin tops like you’d see from a bakery. I do this with my strawberry muffins too, and they turn out so nicely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sourdough does have some nutritional benefits, but keep in mind we are still adding all of the ingredients you’d see in normal pumpkin muffins too. Personally, I wouldn’t consider these sourdough pumpkin muffins health food, but they can absolutely be part of a healthy diet!
In this recipe, the sourdough doesn’t really serve as much of a purpose as it would in say, sourdough bread or sourdough donuts. There, it acts as a leavening agent and adds flavor too.
The sourdough discard adds a lovely depth of flavor, and as a bonus you’re avoiding food waste (for some people, this is the main point!).
Yes! If you want to add chocolate chips, I’d recommend adding no more than 1 cup. Fold them in when your dry ingredients are about 50% incorporated.
If you want to add a crumb topping, I recommend following my streusel recipe (makes enough for 12 muffins, so you will have some leftover). Add this just before baking in place of the cinnamon sugar topping.
More Sourdough Recipes to Try:
In case you missed it, I have all of my sourdough recipes in one easy spot now–check it out if you like to bake with sourdough!
Enjoy!
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Sourdough Pumpkin Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240 g) pumpkin puree
- ½ cup (110 g) sourdough discard
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter melted
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup (67 g) light brown sugar firmly packed
- 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 large egg room temperature preferred
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups (156 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon table salt
For topping:
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and line a tin with 10 paper liners. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, discard, melted butter, sugars, and pumpkin pie spice until thoroughly combined.1 cup (240 g) pumpkin puree, ½ cup (110 g) sourdough discard, ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar, ⅓ cup (67 g) light brown sugar, 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- Add egg and vanilla extract and whisk well.1 large egg, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.1 ¼ cups (156 g) all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon table salt
- Add dry ingredients to wet and use a spatula to gently fold together until just combined.
- Evenly divide batter into prepared muffin tin (remember, this recipe works best as 10 muffins, makes them slightly larger! If you want to make a full dozen muffins, you’ll need to reduce the baking time by a few minutes and the muffins won’t be as large).
- Whisk together granulated sugar and cinnamon for topping and sprinkle evenly over prepared muffins.1 Tablespoon granulated sugar, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Transfer muffins to center rack of 375F(190C) preheated oven and bake for 17-19 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
- Allow muffins to cool in the tin for 7 minutes before carefully removing to a cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
Notes
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.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.
Kate Big Red Dog
Easy and super delish! Made them for home on Saturday and they were devoured. Made them again -double batch to take to tennis and the office. Again rave reviews. Only modification was large coarse crystal sugar and cinnamon on top before baking. First batch I made only 10 muffins and they splooged a bit. I think my starter was very energetic. The second batch, I made all 12 (x2) and were beautiful and not meager. Keeper recipe for sure!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for giving our recipe a try, Kate! We are so happy the muffins were such a hit 🙂
Ruth
Very moist, tender and flavorful! I did add a little extra spice as the batter seemed like it wasn’t too strong in spice flavor. I topped with turbinado sugar and pumpkin pie spice. They rose beautifully and are delicious. Thank you for a successful use of sourdough discard. I’ve had some recipes that were flops. This one was definitely a winner!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy the recipe was such a success for you, Ruth! Enjoy 😊
Sadie
Delicious muffins! They’re light, tender and moist. I used my own spice mix and added a streusel topping. I also subbed 2 tablespoons of canola oil for 2 tablespoons butter. There was enough batter to fill 11 muffin cups to the top. The muffins domed beautifully. Thanks for posting.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad you enjoyed them, Sadie! Thanks for the review 🩷
Marcia
I do not have sourdough starter. I have never made bread. Do you have another substitute or another pumpkin muffin recipe?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes! We actually address this in the blog post. Check out our pumpkin muffins 🙂
Eloise
So easy and so delicious. I decreased the sugar to 80g and the brown sugar to 55g. Thank you so much for this recipe:)
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for giving our recipe a try, Eloise! We are so happy you enjoyed the muffins 😊
Yolanda Mack
These sourdough pumpkin muffins came out so delicious! Like always, so I’m not surprised. Thank you so much for the sourdough recipes and please keep them coming.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy to hear that, Yolanda! Thanks for coming back to leave a review 🩷