Apple Cinnamon Sourdough Muffins
Apple and cinnamon is a beloved flavor combination that shines bright in these muffins. Sourdough discard adds moisture and tenderness to the crumb, and a buttery oat topping adds the perfect crunch.
Creating a delicious apple cinnamon muffin
As a frequent sourdough baker, I’m often looking for new ways to incorporate my leftover sourdough starter into new baking projects. While some bakers prefer to make only enough starter to use in their bread recipe and save the remainder for the next feed, I enjoy keeping some excess on hand. Beyond leavening my bread, I love utilizing my starter for all of its benefits, including providing a small boost in leavening, adding flavor (and not necessarily one that is “sour”), and extending shelf life.
There is any number of ways you can use the discard, such as in savory applications like these cheddar cheese sourdough crackers, or in sweet ones like this popular lemon poppyseed sourdough muffin recipe. My preferred method for recipe development is to take something I really enjoy eating and reverse engineer it to create a recipe that offers the best version of everything I love about that food.
So what makes an apple cinnamon muffin so delicious? Three things stand out in my mind:
I want a muffin that’s rich, flavorful, and buttery
I want lots of apple pieces distributed throughout
I want a sweet, crunchy topping
With these three things in mind, I tested and retested this recipe until I landed on the version you’ll find below.
Using Sourdough Discard’s Benefits
The first major advantage of baking with sourdough discard is that you are adding moisture to the recipe. This needs to be accounted for by removing some of the other wet ingredients, but keep in mind that most sourdough starters, my recipe included, use an equal ratio of flour to water. So although the starter will behave like a wet ingredient, you’ll also be introducing fermented flour to the mix. I’ve tailored the amount of regular all-purpose flour to account for this, avoiding an overly dense muffin with too much flour.
The flavor that your discard adds depends on several factors. If you’re working with discard that’s been sitting in the back of your fridge or on your counter neglected for any period of time, it may have accumulated some hooch, or a layer of dark brownish-grey liquid on top. You’ll want to pour that off; it doesn’t taste great. In my experience, older discard tends to taste fruitier and tangier, whereas discard that’s fresher will lend a richer, nuttier flavor. Both are good, so use whatever you have on hand.
The one thing I recommend against is using sourdough starter that’s immediately at peak; the leavening power may be a bit too much when combined with the baking soda and baking powder. Let it come down from peak for at least a few hours before mixing up the batter.
The best bits: the apples and the topping
I take care in crafting a delicious, tender muffin crumb, but let’s be real, its purpose is to be the delivery system for my favorite bits of the muffin. Those would be, of course, the juicy, tart apples inside, and the extra buttery oat topping. Let’s talk about those briefly.
I could tell you that I selected these apples carefully, but the truth is that a woman in my local Buy Nothing group went apple picking and found herself with a glut of apples, with little desire to use them all. After a beautiful October walk through my neighborhood to go pick them up, I had about 6 pounds of freshly picked apples to use. Some had bright white flesh, and were soft and tart. Others were yellow, firm, and sweet. Use any apples you like, or a variety if you prefer. Just be sure to dice them finely for the best distribution. In testing, I found that a 1/4 inch dice was the sweet spot between still being a discernable piece of apple without feeling too chunky.
The topping for these muffins isn’t quite a traditional crumb topping. The ratio of butter to flour and sugar is a bit higher because I was looking to get the maximum amount of browning and toasting of the muffin top as it bakes in the oven.
The result is a crispy, crunchy topping that occasionally leaves crumbles on the edges of the pan. Those are for the baker to enjoy alone, as a reward for a muffin well baked.
This is a recipe I’ll return to every fall. As long as I’m baking sourdough bread I’ll have sourdough discard, and as long as I have discard, I’ll bake these delicious apple cinnamon sourdough muffins. I hope you will, too!
Apple Cinnamon Sourdough Muffins
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tray with nonstick spray or line it with muffin papers. This recipe makes up to 15 muffins; feel free to use two muffin trays simultaneously, or bake one tray and repeat with the remaining batter.
- In a liquid measuring cup or medium bowl, stir together the sourdough discard, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. Set aside and allow to come to room temp while completing the next steps.
- Prepare the topping if using: in a medium microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter. Stir in the flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, and salt until no dry spots remain. The mixture will be loose; cover bowl and freeze until ready to top muffins.
- In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until combined. Set aside.
- In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- On the lowest mixer speed, or stirring by hand, add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the creamed butter mixture and mix until combined. Add 1/2 of egg mixture and stir until just combined. Repeat, alternating dry and wet ingredients and ending on dry. When just a few streaks of flour remain, proceed to step 7.
- Add the apples and fold in gently by hand until distributed throughout the batter. Do not overmix batter.
- Scoop the batter into the muffin cups; batter will be stiff, so they can be almost full. Remove topping from freezer and crumble gently with hands, then top each muffin with a handful of topping.
- Bake muffins at 425°F for 5 minutes, then lower oven temperature to 350°F and bake for an additional 12-17 minutes, or until topping is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool muffins in pan for 5 minutes, then remove from pan to a cooling rack. Cool for at least 15 minutes on a rack before serving.
- To store, allow muffins to cool completely and store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
I recommend weighing your ingredients for the most accurate results. If you are measuring your sourdough starter discard by volume, first stir it down so that there are no large air pockets, then measure the amount needed.
You can use tart apples, sweet apples, or a mix of both. I prefer to dice the apples into 1/4 inch cubes, which distribute more evenly than larger pieces.
