Home FermentSourdough Discard Orange Cardamom Muffins with Sourdough Discard

Orange Cardamom Muffins with Sourdough Discard

by Kaitlynn Fenley

These sourdough orange cardamom muffins are so flavorful, perfectly sweet, and are great for an easy breakfast on the go. This recipe also has an option for apple cardamom muffins.

Ingredients for Orange Cardamom Muffins

The ingredients here are pretty basic muffin ingredients. With the wet ingredients, I used orange juice along with the orange zest. This added a strong, sweet, and refreshing orange flavor to these muffins. Instead of throwing away your sourdough starter discard, you can use it in a delicious muffin recipe like this. Here’s what you’ll need for the recipe:

Dry Ingredients: 

  • All-purpose flour
  • Organic Sugar (any kind will do, even coconut sugar)
  • Baking soda
  • Salt
  • organic Corn starch
  • Orange zest
  • Cardamom, ground

Wet Ingredients: 

  • grass-fed butter (or vegan butter)
  • organic pastured eggs (or vegan egg replacer equaling two eggs)
  • sourdough starter
  • 1 Ripe banana, mashed
  • Vanilla extract
  • grass-fed whole milk (or any dairy-free milk)
  • Orange juice

Glaze

  • Orange Juice
  • Powdered Sugar

Apple Cardamom Muffins Option

If you aren’t a huge fan of orange, but you like apple, you can change up this recipe a little bit. To make these into apple cardamom muffins, simply sub the orange juice for apple juice!

Using Sourdough Discard to Make Cardamom Muffins

It’s so easy to incorporate sourdough starter into muffin recipes. Simply add the sourdough starter to the wet ingredients and combine! It’s very important to combine all the wet ingredients first and separately combine all the dry ingredients. Then, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until it’s all just combined. Do not over mix this muffin batter, or the muffins will be too chewy and dense. Usually, it takes me about 7 folds to get everything evenly combined. The muffin batter will be very thick.

Orange Cardamom Muffins and apple cardamom muffins with a powdered sugar glaze on top

Sourdough Starter Discard Orange Cardamom Muffins

Since this is a sourdough starter discard recipe, you may be wondering what kind of sourdough stater I use. I mainly keep a Sprouted Rye Sourdough Starter. We also have an Easy Sourdough Starter Recipe with Sourdough Starter Feeding Instructions you can check out! 

If I need to feed my starter, but I don’t plan on spending the whole day baking a loaf of bread, I like to use the discard in fun recipes like this. Jon and I both love these muffins for a quick grab and go breakfast or for an evening sweet treat.

Other Sourdough Recipes to Try

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Orange Cardamom Muffins with Sourdough Discard

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4.8 from 4 reviews

These sourdough orange cardamom muffins are so flavorful, perfectly sweet, and are great for an easy breakfast on the go. This recipe also has an option for apple cardamom muffins.

  • Author: Kaitlynn Fenley
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 12 muffins
  • Category: sourdough
  • Method: Baking

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 2 tablespoons orange zest
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons cardamom
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup grass-fed butter
  • 1/2 cup sourdough starter
  • 1 ripe banana, mashed
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 2 tablespoons orange juice
  • 2 eggs

Glaze

  • 1 tablespoon orange juice
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350° F.
  2. Line a muffin tin with paper liners, or grease the tin with a bit of oil.
  3. In a medium-large mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients. 
  4. In a separate bowl, mash the ripe banana. Then add in the remaining wet ingredients with the banana. Whisk until just combined. 
  5. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until everything is just combined. Do not over mix. The batter should be thick
  6. Spoon the batter into the muffin tin. 
  7. Bake for 30-35 minutes. 
  8. Allow cooling for about 45 minutes
  9. Mix icing, and drizzle it on top the muffins.

Notes

  • you can evenly substitute the milk, eggs, and butter for vegan alternatives to make these muffins vegan.
  • to make these apple cardamom muffins, sub the orange juice for apple juice.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a 5-star review below if you loved it! Tag @cultured.guru on Instagram

 

Nutrition information is auto-calculated and estimated as close as possible. We are not responsible for any errors. We have tested the recipe for accuracy, but your results may vary.

author avatar
Kaitlynn Fenley Author, Educator, Food Microbiologist
Kaitlynn is a food microbiologist and fermentation expert teaching people how to ferment foods and drinks at home.

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15 comments

Ashley October 25, 2022 - 11:39 pm

Would these be okay to long ferment at some point? If so where in the recipe? Thanks 🙂

Reply
Kaitlynn Fenley October 26, 2022 - 8:59 am

They should be. I don’t usually long ferment muffins, but other bakers have told me they refrigerate theirs after they put all the batter in the muffin tin with good results.

Reply
Ashley October 27, 2022 - 10:53 am

Interesting, With my very little knowledge of sourdough I had thought it would be better for nutrient absorption to long ferment most doughs/breads etc. What’s your opinion?

Reply
Kaitlynn Fenley October 27, 2022 - 2:08 pm

Yeah, I long ferment all of my sourdough breads… It’s great for digestibility. But discard recipes, like muffins, biscuits or crackers do not have to be long fermented, they can be but it’s not required.

Reply
Ashley October 27, 2022 - 3:57 pm

That’s a great tip Thank you for the quick response 🙂 Looking forward to making these with my girls this afternoon.

Rahmah July 14, 2024 - 3:08 am

I made this today following the baking temperature and timing. but the muffins turn out to be hard on the outside. May be I had to reduce time and temperature. The taste it self is so nice and smells gooood. I will reduce the sugar on my 2nd attempt. Thank you for sharing🙏






Reply
Jackie December 4, 2022 - 7:13 pm

Do you think this could work with your gluten free starter? I am getting ready to give the GF starter a try and was looking for discard recipes.

Reply
Kaitlynn Fenley December 5, 2022 - 10:10 am

maybe, but I’ve never made it with GF starter or GF flour so I’m not sure.

Reply
Katrina February 20, 2023 - 8:30 am

I made these GF & they turned out so good! Will definitely be making these again. Delicious!






Reply
Kaitlynn Fenley February 20, 2023 - 8:54 am

Oh I’m so glad they worked out with GF flour! thanks for trying the recipe 🙂

Reply
Wendy December 8, 2023 - 12:41 pm

I’ve made these muffins 3 times now. Everyone I’ve shared them with say they’re absolutely delicious. What a wonderful way to use my sourdough discard!

Thank you






Reply
Kaitlynn Fenley December 9, 2023 - 7:10 am

I’m happy to hear the muffins were a hit!

Reply
Susan January 20, 2024 - 10:19 am

What does the cornstarch add? I prefer not to use this ingredient.

Reply
Kaitlynn Fenley January 22, 2024 - 8:21 am

It gives the muffins a slightly lighter texture. You can leave it out though, the muffins will still come out good.

Reply