Sourdough Chocolate Muffins (with Discard)
Double chocolate muffins made with sourdough discard. These have bakery style domes, a moist texture and a very chocolatey flavor.
This sourdough double chocolate muffin recipe is now a little over a year old; I started making them last summer – inspired by the success of my sourdough brownies – and my daughter liked them so much she asked to have them for her birthday party last year (I did feel a tad disappointed I couldn’t make cute cupcakes but also honored she liked these that much).
What’s great about this recipe is you have some room for preferences: use any chocolate chip you like, or don’t and add nuts. Use an oil if you are avoiding butter, and if you have a dairy free yogurt you can thin it out with water and make the muffins completely dairy free.
Recipe Origins
This is a sourdough adaptation of a very old recipe on the site: double chocolate chip olive oil muffins. Because we have that added moisture from the discard, we can use butter in the batter rather than oil and the muffins will stay moist.
Discard also keeps these from being too sweet and honestly, it’s just a great way to use up leftover starter when you tend to bake bread as often as I do =)
Recipe Ingredients
Eggs: large eggs, it is best if they are at room temperature.
Sugar: brown sugar, light or dark. If you only have fine granulated that works too.
Butter: unsalted butter, we’ll melt it. You can substitute this with 100g or ½ cup of avocado oil if you prefer. If you like you can brown the butter, it shouldn’t impact the muffins too much (they are quite moist!).
Salt: fine sea salt. If using table salt, halve the amount.
Vanilla: pure vanilla extract. It’s ok to leave this out if you don’t have it.
Cocoa: dutch process cocoa. This has been alkalized and balances with the recipe’s chemistry. I have not tested the recipe with natural cocoa or black cocoa but I would expect some differences in rise and texture.
Discard: leftover sourdough starter. Up to a week old should be ok.
Leavening: baking soda.
Buttermilk/kefir: as long as they are plain, both of these work. The buttermilk can be low fat or full fat. If you have neither, you can thin out some plain greek yogurt with water to use instead.
Flour: all purpose flour, of a medium protein content (around 11%).
Chocolate chips: semi-sweet or dark chocolate work great here but milk is good too.
How to make double chocolate muffins with sourdough discard
Start by beating the sugar and eggs together: the mix will be dark at first but you beat it will turn several shades lighter and some of the sugar will dissolve:
While beating, add the flavorings (salt & vanilla)
Once the mix is light and airy, keep the mixer on and slowly pour in the butter:
Beat to combine then add the discard and beat
Add the flour, cocoa, and baking soda.
While beating, pour in the buttermilk. Beat until Just combined (no more or the muffins will be tough).
Add the chocolate chips and stir them in (beating will break them up).
We’re going to bake the muffins so that no two are next to each other: so put a parchment liner in every other muffin cup. This will help our muffins bake tall and dome well.
Fill the muffin cups, there’s enough batter for 12 and you’ll want the cups almost all the way full
If you like, add more chocolate chips to the top
Set the trays in the fridge. This isn’t a necessary step but I find that chilling the batter helps with muffin doming
Preheat the oven and bake the muffins first at 400 F for the first 7 minutes then lower the temperature to 350 F and bake until a cake tester comes out clean (or the muffin springs back when pressed in the center).
Recipe for Double Chocolate Muffins with Sourdough Discard
Double Chocolate Muffins with Sourdough Discard
Ingredients
- 200g or 1 cup brown sugar light or dark
- 2 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 113g or ½ cup butter melted
- 85g or ⅓ cup sourdough discard
- 50g or ½ cup dutch process cocoa
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 215g or 1 ⅔ cups all purpose flour
- 240g or 1 cups buttermilk or plain kefir
- 1 cup chocolate chips mini or regular or a mix
Method
- Set the sugar in a large bowl and add the eggs. Immediately begin beating with a hand mixer (a whisk can work too but you’ll need to put some muscle into it) until light and fluffy. This can take up to 3 minutes. Add the sea salt and vanilla while beating.
- With the mixer on, slowly pour in the melted butter, beating until smooth and combined.
- Add the sourdough discard and beat to combine. Beat in the cocoa, then add the flour and with the mixer on, pour in the buttermilk or kefir. Beat to just combine. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Line two 12 cup muffin pans with 12 liners, skipping every other one so that no two muffins will bake next to each other. You should have enough batter for 12 muffins total. Divide the batter between the cups, filling them about three quarters full. Top with more chocolate chips, if desired.
- Set the trays in the fridge and preheat the oven (the muffins don’t need to be in there that long, just for 5-10 minutes, and it isn’t strictly necessary but it does give them some height) to 400 F. Bake the muffins in the center rack. After 7 minutes of bake time, lower the temperature to 350 F. Bake until the tops spring back or a cake tester comes out clean, about another 12-15 minutes. Let cool then remove from pan.
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