Sourdough Chocolate Chunk Muffins are a super easy way to use up 200g of sourdough starter or discard. Made in under 30 minutes, this classic sourdough discard recipe is one that you'll want to make over and over again.
You can use whatever chocolate you like to eat in these sourdough chocolate chunk muffins. I've used generous chunks of milk chocolate - but they work with dark, semi sweet or even caramelised white chocolate!
Light and fluffy inside, great flavor from your sourdough starter and a delicious slightly crunchy exterior. The perfect muffin!
If you are building a new starter, this is a great recipe to use a lot of discard in one hit (as long as your starter is at least 7 days old).
Perfect to serve as they are, warm from the oven, or dress them up with a simple white chocolate ganache.
This is also a great kid friendly sourdough recipe.
You might also like to use some chocolate chunks in these sourdough chocolate chip cookies, sourdough cowboy cookies, chocolate chip sourdough scones or this sourdough banana bread, or even this sourdough mug cake. And if you love chocolate chips, why not try this chocolate chip sourdough bread.
How To Make Chocolate Chunk Sourdough Muffins
I love the simplicity of these muffins. They're a recipe that my 9 year old son can easily make without help - which makes them taste even better! I also love that they use up the buttermilk we have leftover from making our own butter.
If you don't have buttermilk, you can use plain milk, sour cream or even yoghurt.
Here's how to make sourdough chocolate chunk muffins:
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F and grease a 12 hole muffin tin with butter.
- Mix the sourdough starter, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla extract and melted butter in a bowl. Whisk together until well combined.
- In a separate bowl mix together chocolate chunks, all purpose flour, sugars, salt, and baking powder.
- Now pour the liquid ingredient mixture into the dry ingredients. Gently fold together until just mixed - don't over mix or the muffins will be tough.
- Spoon mixture into greased muffin tin. This recipe will fill a 12 hole muffin (each hole around ¾ full).
- Bake at 180C/350F for approximately 20 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.
Is It Better To Use Oil or Butter In Muffins?
I have used butter, as well as buttermilk in these muffins for a few reasons. I find that butter gives muffins a great flavor - particularly important when you're not using other flavorings (like lemon juice or pumpkin for example).
I find that the combination of buttermilk and butter in these muffins result in a light, fluffy crumb that holds the chocolate chunks perfectly. It also gives a slightly crunchy, rich outter - just like your favority bakery style muffin!
You can use oil instead of butter if you want to, but you won't get as good a flavor - you will however get a loftier muffins using oil.
Best Tips for Making Sourdough Muffins
- Always mix the wet and dry ingredients separately. Then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. This will ensure that your muffins are light and airy, rather than tough and chewy.
- While it's perfectly fine to use sourdough discard in this recipe, make sure it's not too old. Older discard is sour and can overpower the flavor of these muffins.
- If you want to make these muffins but don't have quite enough starter in your jar, you can easily increase the amount of starter you have on hand at any time using these instructions.
- For something a little different, these muffins work really well with the discard from a chocolate sourdough starter.
Flavor Variations for Sourdough Chocolate Chunk Muffins
While these sourdough chocolate chunk muffins are delicious just as they are, there are a few things you could add to the mixture to make them next level incredible!
- Add 100g of chopped pecans, walnuts or hazelnuts for a crunchy variation on regular sourdough chocolate chunk muffins.
- Add 100g of frozen raspberries or blueberries.
- The zest of an orange adds a lovely burst of citrus flavor.
For the ultimate indulgence, I love to top these muffins with a simple white chocolate ganache. I simply melt a 225g of white chocolate in microwave and then stir through 125g of cream until it is thick and glossy. Pop it in the fridge to thicken up and then use it on top of your muffins - yum!
Frequently Asked Questions
It's easy to over mix muffin mixture. To keep your muffins light and fluffy, make sure you always mix the wet and dry ingredients separately before adding them together and mixing until just combined. If you over mix the mixture at this stage, you'll get tough, chewy muffins.
Unlike chocolate chips, chocolate chunks can melt while being baked in muffins, cakes and cookies. This gives a "gooier" more indulgent chocolate flavor to your baked goods. If you don't want the chocolate chunks to melt too much, use darker chocolate as it has a higher melting point than milk or semi sweet chocolate. You could also leave the chocolate chunks in the fridge until right before you add them to the dry ingredients.
I find the best way to get higher domed muffins is to use a larger six hole muffin tray and fill the holes to the top, rather than a 12 hole tin. This way you get beautiful high domed muffins. You can always double the recipe to still get 12 muffins.
Want More Recipes?
If you love these sourdough chocolate chunk muffins, you might also enjoy these ideas:
- Sourdough Lemon Muffins
- Sourdough discard chocolate bread
- Long Fermented Sourdough Chocolate Cake
- White Chocolate & Lemon Sourdough Bread Recipe
- Sourdough brioche donut balls with chocolate filling
Chocolate Chunk Sourdough Muffins
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Digital Scales
- 12 Hole Muffin Tin
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 200 g Sourdough Starter Discard or Active Starter
- 2 Eggs
- 60 g Melted Butter
- 60 g Buttermilk or milk or sour cream
- 5 g Vanilla Extract
Dry Ingredients
- 150 g Chocolate Chunks I've used milk chocolate but use whatever you love to eat.
- 170 g All Purpose Flour
- 50 g Brown Sugar
- 50 g Fine Sugar
- 6 g Baking Powder (1 tsp)
- 5 g Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F and grease a 12 hole muffin tin with butter.
- Mix the sourdough starter, eggs, buttermilk, vanilla extract and melted butter in a bowl. Whisk together until well combined.
- In a separate bowl mix together chocolate chunks, sugars, all purpose flour, salt and baking powder.
- Now pour the liquid ingredient mixture into the dry ingredients. Gently fold together until just mixed - don't over mix or the muffins will be tough.
- Spoon mixture into greased muffin tin. This recipe will fill a 12 hole muffin (each hole around ¾ full). For larger muffins, use a 6 hole, large muffin tin.
- Bake at 180C/350F for approximately 20 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
I made these with non dairy butter and non dairy Greek yogurt. Skipped the fine sugar and did stevia to cut back a little since it already have brown sugar. Omg so good. I live at 9000ft so had to bake at 365 for an extra 10 minutes and then a quick minute broil to brown them.
The recipe says to use a 12 hole muffin pan, but it appears that you have used a 6 hole. Does this mean you baked large “bakery” style muffins with this recipe? I would love to find a good large muffin recipe as this is what my family prefers. 😁
If you want larger muffins, I would recommend doubling the recipe and then you'll get 12 large, bakery style muffins 🙂 The muffins have been shown in a 6 hole muffin tray only for photographic purposes 🙂
Is there an easy method of converting grams to cups?
I don't recommend using cups - it's inaccurate. You'll get a much better result working with grams 🙂
These are my favorite sourdough muffins. I’ve made them (and gifted them) in the past but since then we’ve found out our youngest had an egg allergy. I was able to make these egg free by upping the baking powder to 4tsp and omitting the eggs. I also baked them in a mini muffin tin instead of a full size one so they’d hold their shape better. They turned out nearly identical to the originals! Wanted to share in case anyone needed an egg replacement. I don’t care much for the powdered egg replacers so I have been trying to adapt without them.