What do sourdough discard, overripe bananas, and zucchinis have in common? Well nothing, unless you bring them together to make muffins or nut bread. And this time of year, this seems like a natural for using up all the zucchinis that are popping up in the garden.

Along with the zucchini problem, I have a perennial problem of overripe bananas and what to do with them. And then this time of year my starter is always ready to climb out of its jar from all the constant feeding to keep up with the summer heat.

Happily, I recently learned this trick from Amanda Paa, who accumulates her discard and stores it in the fridge until she wants to bake. At her blog site she writes:

“With sourdough baking, removing and discarding some of your starter before you feed it each time can feel wasteful. But you don’t have to throw it out! The great thing about discard starter is that  can be used in baking even after sitting in your refrigerator for over two weeks. Think of leftover starter as food, and essentially a levain, or what we would use to give life and rise to a recipe. That’s why I save mine in a separate jar and let it accumulate, then make something delicious from it when the jar is nearly full, as is, straight from the refrigerator.”

Amanda Paa, Heartbeet Kitchen,

Banana, Zucchini, Nut Sourdough Discard Bread Recipe

Serving Size:
2 small loaves and
6 large muffins
Time:
20 minutes prep
8 hours fermentation
60 minutes prep
Difficulty:
Moderately easy

Ingredients

  • WET INGREDIENTS
  • ⅓ cup (80 g) butter
  • ¼ cup (85 g) honey
  • ¼ cup (62.5 g) sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 ripe bananas (240 g), mashed
  • 1 cup (300 g) unfed sourdough starter or discard
  • 1 tsp (4 ml) vanilla
  • DRY INGREDIENTS
  • 2 cups (25o g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp (5 g) baking powder
  • ½ tsp. (2.3 g) baking soda
  • ½ tsp (1.3 g) cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp (0.5 g) nutmeg
  • ½ tsp (2.8 g) salt
  • 1 medium zucchini (262 g), grated, and excess water squeezed out with towels
  • ¾ cup (81 g) walnuts or pecans, finely chopped

Directions

  1. Coat a 9×5-inch loaf pan with butter or pan spray.
  2. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy;
  3. Add eggs one at a time, blending after each addition.
  4. Stir in mashed bananas and sourdough starter.
  5. Stir in the vanilla extract and set aside.
  6. In a second bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon and nutmeg, and salt.
  7. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring just until blended.
  8. Fold in the chopped nuts and shredded zucchini squash into the dough
  9. Pour batter into a buttered loaf pan. Allow the filled loaf pan aside to rest for approximately 20 minutes OR overnight for a long ferment to mitigate gluten.
  10. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C) (for altitudes above 3000 ft [900 meters] increase the temperature to 375°F [191°C])
  11. Bake for 60-65 minutes or until the internal temperature of the bread reaches 200°F (93°C).

This same recipe works great as muffins, (see photo above) using the same heat, but baking them for just 25 minutes. Then let them cool in the hot oven, which will brown them up well and get them to 200°F (93°C).

  For more help on sourdough, zucchini muffins see Heartbeet Kitchen,  where Amanda offers a recipe for Zucchini Walnut Sourdough Discard Muffins sweetened with bananas on her blog. I especially like that her recipe uses less fat than others I have tried including the one listed above.

Tell us about ways you combine zucchini and sourdough in the comment section below.