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Moist Sourdough Banana Bread

January 23, 2023 This post may contain affiliate links.

This sourdough banana bread is an easy and tasty treat that goes great with a cup of hot coffee. It is the best low or no sugar banana bread that your family will love!

Whenever I have extra discard and old bananas (which is often) I reach for this recipe. It is very customizable so you can use my tips to adjust it to your specific tastes. If you like it sweeter, go up to 1/2 cup of sugar. Or, like I do, remove the sugar entirely and add an extra banana or dried fuit to make it a no-sugar banana bread! Add 1/4 cup of nuts, raisins, or chocolate chips to add sweetness, texture, and flavor.

The sourdough discard replaces the sour cream and some of the milk that would normally be used in a standard banana bread. It adds great flavor, nutrition, and creaminess to make your banana bread moist and tender. If you have more discard than this recipe calls for, you can take out the milk entirely and add your extra starter.

In general, don’t swap butter or oil for sourdough discard. It mainly replaces flour and water, milk, sour cream. Butter is important for this recipe and most sweet cakes and cookies to make sure they are light and moist. You can replace the butter in this recipe with oil, but butter is better.

How can I make my banana bread more moist?

• Mainly, don’t overmix or overbake. Both of these will result in a drier cake. Make sure that your butter and sugar is VERY well blended, like a nice frosting. The rest doesn’t need to be mixed as well.
• Don’t cut into the bread right away. Wrap it in foil and let it sit for at least an hour. This is going to trap in the moisture and make a really good banana bread. After it has cooled and you have cut into the bread, store it in a sealed plastic bag.
• Not required for moist bread, but you can replace the 1/4 cup milk with 1/4 cup sour cream. It will make your bread moist, but I tend to like the flavor and consistency better without this addition. The discard does a good job of making up for the loss of sour cream.
• Once out of the oven, you can brush with some type of liquid. Either simple syrup or melted butter with sprinkled brown sugar. You can add cinnamon to the sugar for an extra spice kick. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a bowl and brush over loaf. Sprinkle desired brown sugar on top. If you are adding cinnamon, then mix it with the sugar before sprinkling on top and use no more than 1/8 of a teaspoon.
• If you add raisins, dried cranberries, or currants, try soaking them before adding to batter. Dried fruits are moisture zappers and can make your banana bread much drier.

How to make sourdough chocolate banana bread?

Replace 1/4 cup (25 g) of the all-purpose flour with cocoa powder and add 1/4-1/2 cup chocolate chips. Save some chocolate chips to sprinkle on the top before baking.

How can I add some kick?

Add 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. I’d recommend keeping the brown sugar in the recipe if you do and try adding this to the chocolate banana bread for a really nice flavor combination.

How to make no-sugar sourdough banana bread?

Recipes in general add way too much sugar. There is a point where you can’t even taste the other flavors because it is so sweet. Most banana bread recipes have about 1 cup of sugar, which is not needed. Bananas are very sweet on their own.

In order to make it no-sugar, take out the sugar entirely and see how you like it. If you want it a little sweeter, then add another banana. Keep in mind that you will need to bake up to the full 55 minutes due to the added moisture. If you don’t cook it long enough, the bread will have a gummy consistency. When eliminating the sugar, cream the butter with the mashed bananas instead of sugar in the recipe steps.

Instead of adding an extra banana you can try other naturally sweet items like chopped dates, raisins, dried bananas/freeze dried bananas. I’d recommend about 1/4 cup of whichever item you choose. With the dried bananas, I like to just sprinkle them on top instead of combine into the mix. They really take your banana bread to a whole new level and create the ultimate chewy banana flavor.

Sugar substitues?

Brown sugar works especially well in this recipe, but if you don’t have it then you can replace it with the following:

• white sugar
• honey
• maple syrup
• coconut sugar

Vegan sourdough banana bread

Replace the eggs with an additional banana and exchange butter with coconut or olive oil. Remove the milk entirely or use a dairy-free replacement like soy, almond, or oat. Oat would be my first choice. You can also replace the milk with 30g extra sourdough discard.

How to store?

Keep bread in a sealed plastic bag at room temperature for a few days or refrigerate it for a week.

You can also freeze the bread in slices and then reheat individually. This creates a really nice crust that is great with a bit of butter.

Sourdough banana muffins

Convert your sourdough banana bread into muffins by baking in a greased muffin tin instead of loaf pan for about 20-25 minutes. Fill each muffin compartment to a little over 3/4 full. You don’t need to change any ingredients besides the baking time. This recipe will yield about 12 muffins. You can use muffin liners, but they are not required.

When baking muffins, I either add chocolate chips or a butter, sugar topping. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a bowl and pour 1/4 cup brown sugar onto a small plate. Dip the top of each muffin in the melted butter and then immediately into the brown sugar.

Sourdough chocolate banana muffins with chocolate chips are always a crowd favorite and super quick to make.

Step by Step Instructions

1. Preheat oven

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Cream sugar & butter

In a mixing bowl cream 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup butter with a hand or electric mixer until smooth.

3. Add wet ingredients

Mash bananas with a fork and add to bowl. Measure 1/4 cup milk, 1 tsp vanilla, 90g sourdough starter and add to bowl. Crack two eggs and mix until smooth.

4. Add dry ingredients

Measure 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp baking soda, 4 g salt, and 250 g all-purpose flour in a separate bowl. Add to wet mixture and mix on low or whisk until fully combined. Gently whisk optional nuts, chocolate chips, or dried fruit into batter.

5. Add to loaf pan

Pour mixture into greased loaf pan and smooth the top.

6. Bake

Bake for 50-55 minutes or until fork comes out mostly clean. Let sit for 10 minutes and then remove from pan. Once cool, cover with foil or place in ziploc bag.

• 1 banana bread loaf
• 15 minutes
• 55 minutes

Ingredients

Banana Bread

• 4 overripe bananas
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (room temp)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 90 g sourdough starter discard
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 g salt
• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup (optional) chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, dried bananas

Tools

• Scale
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Mixing bowl
• Electric mixer or whisk
• Loaf pan

Directions

1. Preheat oven. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cream sugar & butter. In a mixing bowl cream sugar and butter with a hand or electric mixer until smooth.
3. Add wet ingredients. Mash bananas with a fork and add to bowl. Measure and mix milk, eggs, vanilla, and sourdough starter.
4. Add dry ingredients. Measure and add nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and flour. Use hand mixer on low or whisk to blend. Add optional chocolate chips, nuts, or dried fruit.
5. Add to loaf pan. Pour mixture into greased loaf pan.
6. Bake. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until fork comes out mostly clean. Let sit for 10 minutes and then remove from pan.

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