Sourdough Discard Banana Bread

Don’t discard your extra sourdough starter! It makes a great addition to easy baking recipes, including this banana bread recipe.

In early 2020, it took me a few days to get savvy as to why the ‘gram was filling up with sourdough starters.

Since I’m a perpetually busy baker, I (unlike a lot of people) had a plentiful stash of yeast on hand when the home isolation hit.

From what I could tell at the time (and this article pretty much confirmed it), many would-be bakers found themselves scrambling to buy up all the yeast they could find on store shelves… realizing that weeks/months at home provided a great time to bake.

Here’s the problem. The yeast “food chain” isn’t exactly primed to anticipate a massive baking surge in the spring. And so, much like the story of toilet paper, there developed a yeast shortage.

So, that leads us to sourdough.

Because of the natural yeast that lives around us every day, with some patience and daily nurturing, you can basically turn flour + water into a vibrant sourdough mixture that can — eventually — leaven bread all on its own. It’s pretty special when you think about it.

I’m NOT a sourdough expert.

In fact, when I reconstituted an Alaskan sourdough starter that I brought back from my last trip to Alaska (be sure to listen to the end of The Supplements Episode to learn more about that) it was the first time I’d ever successfully gotten a sourdough starter, started.

But what I found (as any sourdough baker will tell you) is that you end up with A LOT of “discard” as you continually feed your starter. And while yeast was nowhere to be found, flour wasn’t far behind in those early days of lockdown.

In other words, I didn’t want to waste a single ounce of flour if I didn’t have to. Hence the reason I started searching for sourdough discard recipes.

King Arthur Flour (who by the way has the MOST amazing baking resources ever) has a great guide to sourdough AND has some yummy ideas for sourdough discard recipes. I made their Sourdough Discard Crackers, but if you’ve ever looked through my Instagram feed, you know I love me a good quick bread recipe!

So with a little research, my own baking knowledge, and a plentiful supply of frozen bananas and chocolate chips, this beauty was born:

If you’re interested in getting started making your own sourdough starter, definitely start with King Arthur Flour’s tutorial.

OR… do as I did. “Cheat” a little and begin with a dry sourdough starter that you can reconstitute. There’s this dry sourdough starter available on Amazon.

King Arthur also has a fresh sourdough starter that I’ve heard wonderful things about. You *might* be able to snag the one I used by purchasing this Sourdough Cookbook (they include a packet of the same starter I used with every purchase of the cookbook).

And lastly, it looks like breadtopia has a dry sourdough starter in stock.

If you bake this recipe or begin your own starter… of if you’re already in the sourdough experience like so many of us, please tag me on Instagram @ReganJonesRD. I’d love to see what you’re baking!

Of course, if you’re not really in the mood for chocolate chips in your banana bread, then I recommend making this Healthy Banana Bread from my friend Olena at ifoodreal instead! Or better yet, make them both! ~Regan

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