Blueberry Sourdough Muffins made gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and dairy-free. This delicious muffin recipe uses coconut oil and coconut sugar in place of butter and sugar. Bake up a batch using your leftover sourdough starter!
If you’re rich in sourdough starter and are in hot pursuit of a place for it, these muffins are your ticket to a real good time!
I should know…I ate four immediately after photographing them.
The fluffy texture, bursts of juicy blueberries, and the cinnamon streusel topping are simply irresistible!
Sourdough discard imparts a subtle sour flavor, much like sour cream or Greek yogurt, which offsets the sweetness of the muffins for a unique and delicious flavor profile.
They are the perfect make-ahead breakfast to enjoy on busy mornings!
Let’s dive into the details!
Ingredients For Sourdough Muffins:
Sourdough Starter: use a gluten-free sourdough starter or regular sourdough starter – whatever suits your fancy. I follow a gluten-free diet, so I created a gluten-free sourdough starter from scratch.
Gluten-Free Baking Flour: Pick your favorite gluten-free flour blend! My top two recommendations are Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour and King Arthur’s Measure for Measure. If you have a brand you love, give it a shot!
Coconut Sugar: Lower on the glycemic index than cane sugar, my preference for baking is cane sugar. It can be used as a 1:1 substitute for cane sugar and adds a caramel flavored richness.
Coconut Oil: Rather than using butter, I use melted coconut oil for the muffins and softened coconut oil for the topping. The oil adds a creamy, nutty flavor and the muffins end up tasting buttery as a result even though there is no butter.
Fresh Blueberries: Fresh blueberries give these muffins beautiful color and also a lovely tangy-sweet pop of flavor. Frozen blueberries work too, although I suggest thawing them first.
Vanilla Extract: Optional, but delicious, vanilla extract gives nice warm flavor.
Baking Soda: Our leavening agent in addition to the sourdough starter. Necessary for creating fluffy, well rounded sourdough muffins.
Sea Salt: Salt is a flavor enhancer. It makes these sourdough discard muffins taste sweeter without the need for additional sugar.
Recipe Adaptations:
- Replace coconut oil with butter, avocado oil, or ghee.
- Use regular all-purpose flour instead of gluten-free.
- Swap granulated cane sugar or brown sugar for the coconut sugar.
- Replace blueberries with strawberries, raspberries, apples, or other kinds of fresh fruit.
- Add 1 tablespoon of lemon zest to make lemon blueberry muffins.
- Use white chocolate chips or regular chocolate chips in place of berries.
How to Make Sourdough Muffins:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 12-hole muffin pan with coconut oil (or butter/cooking oil of choice). If you prefer using paper liners, feel free to line the muffin tin with muffin liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sourdough starter, egg, coconut oil and vanilla extract (wet ingredients). Continue whisking until very well-combined and there is no more oil separation.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and sea salt (dry ingredients).
Add the dry mixture to the mixing bowl with the wet mixture and stir until well combined. The batter will be very thick.
Place the blueberries in a small bowl and toss them gently in 1 teaspoon of flour. This prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins while baking. Add the blueberries and gently fold them in (so as to avoid much breakage).
Fill the muffin holes up ⅔ to ¾ of the way full with muffin batter (batter will rise).
In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the ingredients for the topping and stir well.
Spoon topping over the muffins generously.
Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until muffins feel firm when poked and the topping is golden brown.
Allow muffins to cool at least 20 minutes in the muffin tin. Gently run a butter knife between the muffins and the muffin tray to pop them out.
Serve and enjoy!
I love heating up a muffin with a little melted butter on top and enjoying it with a mug of tea or coffee as an afternoon snack.
Storage Options:
- Room Temperature: Store muffins in an airtight container on the counter for up to 2 days.
- Refrigerator: Refrigerate in a sealed container or a zip lock bag for up to 5 days.
- Freezer: Freeze for up to 3 months in a freezer-safe container or a freezer bag.
The next time you’re in need of a delicious sourdough recipe, make these moist and fluffy sourdough blueberry muffins!
It’s a great way to use up sourdough discard that isn’t sourdough bread. Use it as a base recipe for all your leftover sourdough discard muffin experiments.
Sourdough Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
Sourdough Muffins:
- 1 cup sourdough starter see note
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup coconut oil melted and cooled*
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar **
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
Crumble Topping
- 1/4 cup coconut oil softened
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
- 1/3 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 12-hole muffin pan with coconut oil (or butter/cooking oil of choice).
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the sourdough starter, egg, coconut oil and vanilla extract. Continue whisking until very well-combined and there is no more oil separation.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and sea salt.
- Add the dry mixture to the mixing bowl with the wet mixture and stir until well combined. The batter will be very thick. Add the blueberries and gently fold them in (so as to avoid much breakage).
- Fill the muffin holes ⅔ to ¾ of the way full with batter (batter will rise).
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the ingredients for the topping and stir well. Use your hands or a spoon to sprinkle topping generously over the blueberry muffin batter.
- Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until muffins feel firm when poked. Insert a digital thermometer into the center of one of the muffins to check for doneness. They are ready once they reach an internal temperature of 190 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Allow muffins to cool at least 20 minutes. Gently run a butter knife between the muffins and the muffin tray to pop them out.
Notes
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions:
Can I Make These Sourdough Muffins Using Regular Flour?
If you aren’t gluten-intolerant and have regular sourdough starter, you can still use it to bake these muffins! You can either still use gluten-free all-purpose flour or regular all-purpose flour in combination with regular sourdough starter.
Should I use fed or unfed sourdough discard?
Use unfed sourdough discard for the best results. There is no need to feed the starter ahead of time, as the active starter is mixed with more flour, liquid, and sugar.
Is it possible to make gluten-free sourdough starter?
Yes! I made mine using King Arthur’s recipe for Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter but used Bob’s Red Mill’s Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour (I’m sure King Arthur flour would be amazing too!). I needed to increase the amount of water initially, but otherwise kept to a 1:1 ratio.
Not only is it possible to make gluten-free sourdough starter, but mine became crazy active (and has stayed active) in just 4 days. It’s much easier than you may think! As long as your home is nice and warm, naturally occurring bacteria and yeast do all the hard work for you.
Now is a great time to make a starter if you’ve been interested, as the warmer months are condusive to fermentation. My house has been between 74 and 77 which I think is contributing greatly to its success.
This recipe for sourdough muffins is entirely gluten-free, as the sourdough starter and the flour used to bake the muffins are both GF.
These are really good! I did use Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer and I used frozen blueberries and they were fine using frozen for me. Thank you for a great recipe!
Amazing news! Thanks so much for sharing the flour and the egg replacer! This is super helpful to others who want to try the same thing 🙂
Can you freeze these
Hi Jolene! Yes, absolutely! In fact, I did so to my latest batch 🙂 I just put them in a large zip lock bag after they have cooled sufficiently. They should last for up to 3 months in the freezer.