This banana bread takes a little bit of time to bake, but it’s worth every second. It’s a moist, flavorful, special loaf of bread that the whole family will love. Banana bread is one of those dishes that can be made in any season, for any meal. We eat this for breakfast, an after-lunch snack, or even dessert. My hope is that this will become a delicious staple in your home.
❤️ Why You’ll Love Sourdough Discard Banana Bread
Banana bread is one of those special dishes that can be enjoyed in every season, and for every meal. My whole family loves this loaf, the only complicated thing about it is getting the bananas to brown enough before they get eaten. We’re a big banana family – which means we’re a banana bread family.
🍲 Ingredients
Sourdough Discard – unfed, inactive sourdough starter either room temperature or straight from the fridge.
Butter – 1 stick of browned melted butter.
Brown Sugar – this adds a sweet molasses flavor that pairs so well with banana bread.
Bananas – It wouldn’t be banana bread without bananas, and the riper the better.
Flour – unbleached, all-purpose flour.
White Chocolate Chips – we’re a big white chocolate chips family, it’s our favorite kind of chocolate. But this is a great base banana bread recipe where you can switch out the chocolate flavors to whatever you like.
Baking soda + baking powder – the leavening agents for the loaf.
Cinnamon – optional, but I think it belongs in almost every banana dish there is 🙂
👩🍳 How to Make White Chocolate Banana Bread
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- In a sauce pan over medium heat, brown your butter for 3-4 minutes. Careful not to burn it.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon) in a mixing bowl and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, mash down the ripe bananas with a fork. Add in brown sugar, eggs, browned butter, vanilla extract, and sourdough discard. Whisk together until there are no streaks left.
- Add in all the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together until there are no dry bits of flour. Add in the white chocolate chips and mix together until everything is incorporated.
- Cover the batter and let rest for 15 minutes. This will relax the gluten in the batter and create a fluffier texture in the bread. If you can’t do this step, it’s okay. But if you have time, it’s worth it.
- Transfer to a buttered/ greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes – 1 hour until the loaf passes the toothpick test.
- Serve with a healthy smear of butter and a drizzle of honey!
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- Letting the batter rest for 15 minutes makes a world of difference in texture, if you can’t do it – it’s okay. But if you can – it’s worth it.
- Try not to overmix, the more you mix the denser the bread will be.
🗒 Variations
I think the beauty of this loaf is that it’s a solid base recipe where you can add any flavors you want to it. My family loves white chocolate chips, but this could work with the flavors you love!
- Peanut Butter Banana Bread.
- Strawberry Banana Bread.
🗒 Substitutions
There are many swaps that can happen, and still make a delicious banana bread!
- Brown Sugar – Granulated sugar or Maple syrup
- White Chocolate chips – your favorite chocolate chips
🗒 Best served with
- Breakfast
- Dessert
- Butter and Honey
🤔 Common Questions
Answer 1
Answer 2
Sourdough Discard Banana Bread
Equipment
- Sauce pan
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ cup melted butter browned
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 – 3 ripe bananas
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup sourdough discard
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- In a sauce pan over medium heat, brown your butter for 3-4 minutes. Careful not to burn it.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon) in a mixing bowl and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, mash down the ripe bananas with a fork. Add in brown sugar, eggs, browned butter, vanilla extract, and sourdough discard. Whisk together until there are no streaks left.
- Add in all the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together until there are no dry bits of flour. Add in the white chocolate chips and mix together until everything is incorporated.
- Cover the batter and let rest for 15 minutes. This will relax the gluten in the batter and create a fluffier texture in the bread. If you can't do this step, it's okay. But if you have time, it's worth it.
- Transfer to a buttered/ greased loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes – 1 hour until the loaf passes the toothpick test.
- Serve with a healthy smear of butter and a drizzle of honey!
This recipe looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it. I was wondering if I could use plain yogurt in place of the vanilla yogurt? It’s the only ingredient I don’t have on hand and I don’t want to have to run to the store before I can start on it…
You can absolutely can!
What yogurt? It’s not in the banana recipe anywhere
It was in the original recipe but I left it out of the new one 🙂
Is this just for one loaf? It looks like a lot of batter! Thanks!
It is! We have a large loaf pan that works perfectly because it is a lot of batter.
Yeah, might be a good idea to specify you used a larger loaf pan. I used a regular size and had to scoop a bunch out. Made a mess 😜 so yummy though!
Thank you for the feedback, I will go ahead and change that wording now!
May I use plain yogurt in place of the vanilla?
for sure! then add a little bit of vanilla extract if you like.
Delicious! So light and fluffy! I’ve been waiting and hoping for a sourdough discard muffin recipe with yogurt, so I was super excited to try this. Substituted 1/2 the butter with coconut oil. Made as mini muffins and baked at 350 for 10 minutes.
That sounds amazing! I’m so glad you liked it, and thank you for sharing <3
Have you tried using bread flour? It’s all I have at the moment & wondered if that would work?
Bread flour has a higher protein content so it’s able to absorb more liquid, it fill definitely work and have a fluffy texture! Let us know how it goes 🙂
This is delicious! I substituted the yogurt for banana flavored greek yogurt as that is all I had at the moment. It was perfect! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
This is a keeper! I’ve been looking for a sourdough discard bb recipe. I made these in a mini muffin pan (24 ct – cooked 15 min) and 2 mini loaves (cooked 25 min). We also used mini chocolate chips and cut the cinnamon in half.
I’m curious about the yogurt questions – I don’t see yogurt in the recipe.
I’m glad you liked it! I’m glad you brought that up, when I tweaked and simplified the recipe, I left the yogurt out 🙂 Thanks for sharing your different baking times.
Can I sub whole wheat flour? I have a bunch that I’d like to use.
Absolutely! That would go great with this recipe.
Oh man. BEST. BANANA. BREAD. EVER. I did use two loaf pans which just made more- praise the Lamb.
I’ve made many banana bread recipes – this one is soooo good! I love the crunchy crust with the moist rich center. Oh my goodness. Will be making this again!
I’m so glad you love it. This is my husband’s favorite dessert!
This is my favorite recipe! Everywhere I bring it, everyone always asks for the recipe! It is soooo good! I do substitute with dark chocolate chips because that is what I always have on hand. So yummy!
That’s amazing to hear! Thank you so much 🙂
I made these this morning and doubled the recipe! It made quite a bit of batter so I had enough for 3 standard sized loaf pans. Phenomenal! Thank you!!
I love that! Plenty to freeze or give away 🙂
Made this for my boyfriend and he said it was better than his moms banana bread. Told him to keep that to himself hahaha. It was very good, we really like it a lot.
I’m so happy you both loved it! Yes, he should keep that to himself 🤣
Lovely just what I was searching forThanks to the author for taking his time on this one
Definitely should say in the recipe to use 2 loaf pans or a large pan. I didn’t read the comments until after I baked and the loaf exploded over the edge of my pan and oven 🙃
Still delicious though.
I will adjust the recipe to specify a large loaf pan! I’m glad you enjoyed it <3