In the Fuss Free household I do most of the cooking, whilst Ed makes breakfast and bakes sourdough. Ever since we spent a day with Vanessa at her beautiful Northamptonshire cookery school learning more about sourdough, and perhaps more importantly, where we were going wrong, Ed’s sourdough loaves are getting better and better and we are eating more and more of it.
All this sourdough leaves a problem of what to do with the spare leaven that is left as part of the process – I hate throwing it away, it seems unnecessarily wasteful so I adapted my usual egg free muffins recipe to use some of the leaven up.
- 100 grams 100% hydration leaven*
- 75 ml non diary milk dairy works just fine too
- 25 grams vegetable oil
- 60 g plain flour
- 40 g soft brown sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- Heaped tsp cranberry sauce
- 1 tbs dark chocolate chips
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Whisk the leaven, oil and milk together. Mix the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry along with the cranberry sauce and chocolate drops (reserve a few) and fold together (the batter should be lumpy and mixing should take no more than 15 folds).
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Dollop the mixture into a mini muffin pan, sprinkle each muffin with the remainder of the chocolate drops.
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Bake at GM5/190C/375F for 12 – 15 mins until risen. For regular muffins increase the cooking time to 20 – 25 mins.
As these use the last of my home made cranberry sauce – found in the freezer and the leftover leaven from sourdough making I think they are an excellent fit for this month’s No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Fiona and run by Elizabeth.
Gorgeous little morsels. You and Ed make such a good team, especially with his new-found sourdough baking skills :-)
The day with Vanessa made such a huge difference to Ed’s sourdough. it is a hard skill, but so worth it once mastered.
thanks for linking this up to the challenge! I’ve never heard of sourdough muffins, but these do look great;)
It is a great way of using up the spare leaven. And possibly the last of the Christmas cranberry sauce!
these look fab. Pierre made some similar muffins at a baking day with Dan Lepard and they tasted great but we have not done it again. Must try your recipe as I do still have a little cranberry sauce left too!
I love muffins, endlessly adaptable too!
These look and sound absolutely delicious!
I love muffins, endlessly adaptable too!
This is perfect. I have my own sourdough starter and need a way to use up some of the spare leaven. My kids will appreciate these and I could do with a day of sourdough tutoring. I have taught myself and am ok but could do with getting my bread more holy as in bigger holes!
I think that the day with Vanessa made the biggest difference to Ed’s bread. And was very inspiring.
Sourdough muffins sound very original, I bet they’re delicious. GG
We rather enjoyed them – a nice edge to them.
A fantastic No Waste Food Challenge entry, thank you! I’ve never tried making sourdough bread myself, it just seems to scary and complicated. I was given a starter once and I’m pretty sure I killed it by forgetting about it in my fridge! Must try again!
It takes time and a lot of learning to make good sourdough but it is well well worth it. Doing a course made a huge difference to Ed’s bread. I say go for it.
Having still to make my own sour dough (but it’s right up there on my foodie want to make list!) I don’t have this problem YET. Sound super resourceful and super yummy.
I really recommend a sourdough class when you start to make it. It is a frustrating mix of both science and art, endlessly adaptable, but you do need the basics spot on.
Brilliant idea, love that you’re not wasting the spare dough.
Janie x
Lots more ideas for spare leaven coming soon!
Nice combination of flavours Helen. Perfect for breakfast!
We used to have muffins nearly every weekend for breakfast and then fell out of the habit. I love thinking up new muffin flavours.
I think sourdough muffins are a new one on me but they sound most enticing! I will have to learn not to kill sourdough before trying these though!
Sourdough is really not that much hands on time and is ideally suited to those who work from home. I really do recommend a course however.
Oooh this would be great to use up the last of the xmas cranberry sauce! Lovely colour!
I still have a small jar of cranberry sauce in the freezer. Endless leftovers.
Those muffins sound lovely. I use buttermilk in so many things like that, so I can only imagine how good they must be with sourdough starter.
I was especially pleased with these ones. If you leave the leaven in the fridge for a few days before using the flavour really develops.
Muffins are always a good choice! Not only they’re quick but so easy to make, especially when you’re in need of sugar ;)
I love muffins, we often have them for breakfast – you can weigh everything out the night before and quickly mix them in the morning.
This looks way beyond my baking skills but wow do they look good. I adore sourdough bread which I buy whenever I can get any at the farmers market and hats off to you for making your own in your household. Muffins look like gorgeous friands which I love.
The tricky part is being able to bake sourdough to be able to get the spare leaven. The muffins are very easy. I advise going on a course which will remove much of the frustrations.
These sound perfect and they are eggless too, but where to get the leaven to start off the process???
Time to learn to make sourdough bread Nayna
Your sourdough muffins sound wonderful. I love bread making but always been a bit nervous of sourdough – even though I love to eat it.
Go for it Tina. Sourdough does not have to be scary.