Sourdough Applesauce Muffins

Easy to mix and bake sourdough applesauce muffins using 200g of sourdough discard. This is such an easy sourdough discard recipe to have in your collection! You'll get a moist muffin that packs a big apple flavor and is full of wholesome ingredients, perfect for an easy breakfast or snack at any time of the day.

If you love easy, wholesome sourdough recipes, then make sure you check out this sourdough applesauce cake, sourdough apple cinnamon muffins, sourdough banana nut muffins or sourdough morning glory muffins.

Why You'll Love This Recipe!

Use Simple Pantry Ingredients - This easy sourdough muffin recipe uses basic pantry ingredients, along with 200g of sourdough discard, to create wholesome and delicious muffins. I love that I can throw these together in a pinch for an impromptu picnic or playground trip where snacks are needed. They also make a healthy breakfast option!

No Wait Sourdough Recipe - Baked in around 30 minutes, this no wait sourdough recipe is a great one to have on hand when you have very little time, but a full jar of sourdough discard to use up.

Easy To Freeze - I love that these moist muffins are so easy to freeze! They can be thawed and eaten cold or warmed up a little in the microwave or oven.

Sourdough Starter or Sourdough Discard?

Like most sourdough discard recipes, you can use either active sourdough starter or sourdough discard in this recipe. It doesn't make too much difference because this recipe uses baking powder as a leavening agent. The sourdough discard or active starter are used to increase the depth of flavor in this recipe.

You can read more about the difference between sourdough discard and sourdough starter here.

How To Make Sourdough Applesauce Muffins

Making sourdough muffins is such an easy process and a fantastic way to use up a lot of sourdough discard at once. Winning all around right? So let's get baking!

Preheat the oven to 200C (390F) and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cup cake liners (or grease with oil or butter). I like to spray my cup cake liners with a little cooking spray as I find this stops the liner sticking to the baked muffin. Set aside.

Add the applesauce, eggs, vanilla extract, melted butter, white sugar, brown sugar and sourdough starter to a large mixing bowl and whisk together until well combined (I've included the wet and brown sugars in the wet ingredients to ensure they are well dissolved).

Once the wet ingredients are well combined, add the dry ingredients on top (all purpose flour, rolled oats, baking powder, cinnamon and raisins) and then use a spatula to gently combine them all together.

Spoon the muffin batter evenly amongst the muffin holes. I've added a thin slice of apple and some granulated sugar to top of the muffins (but this is totally optional).

Place into the oven for 25 minutes. If your oven runs hot, reduce the temperature to 180C (350F).

Remove the sourdough applesauce muffins from the oven when they're golden brown and baked through. If you've added some apple slices to the top of the muffins like I have, these should have baked into little crispy slices during the baking time. 

Allow them to cool on a wire cooling rack.

Ingredient Notes & Variations

Applesauce - I've used regular, unsweetened applesauce to create this recipe. I've chosen to use store bought applesauce for these muffins, however I will often use homemade applesauce if I have some on hand (it's a must make in our home after winter apple picking). Either work just fine. In our house, applesauce is a staple with roast pork, so I'll often make this sourdough muffin recipe a few days after we make roast pork as it's an easy way to use up the leftover applesauce and not have it go moldy in the fridge.

Raisins - You can leave the raisins out if you don't like them, or even swap them for semi sweet chocolate chips. Craisins, dried apricots or dried blueberries are lovely alternatives too. Fresh blueberries are also a lovely substitute for raisins in this recipe to create next level sourdough blueberry muffins.

Rolled Oats - Use traditional or old fashioned rolled oats, NOT quick or microwave oats. You can substitute the oats with rolled flaxseed or quinoa flakes if you prefer.

Melted Butter - I've used melted butter for a richer flavor, but you can substitute this with the same amount of vegetable oil or melted coconut oil if you prefer. Canola oil is also a suitable substitute if you like, as is a light flavored olive oil.

All Purpose Flour - you can substitute all purpose flour with whole wheat flour if you like. It adds a lovely nuttiness to these wholesome sourdough applesauce muffins.

Fresh Apples - if you'd like to use fresh apples in this recipe, you can add up to 2 fresh apples, peeled, cored and diced. Add this to the wet ingredients when mixing. You can also top the sourdough applesauce muffins with apple slices before baking for some extra pizazz! If you've got lots of fresh apples to use, you might enjoy this sourdough apple pie using an easy sourdough pie crust.

Cinnamon - you can use as much ground cinnamon as you like in this recipe. You could also use apple pie spice or pumpkin pie spice as an alternative.

Can You Ferment These Muffins Overnight?

You can ferment the batter for these sourdough applesauce muffins overnight if you prefer (just like these sourdough blueberry muffins).

If you would prefer a fermented version, you can make the batter and pop it in the fridge overnight. This will deepen the sourdough flavor.

The only caveat here is that I leave out the baking powder and cinnamon until right before they go into the oven. So take the batter out of the fridge, mix in the cinnamon and baking powder and then proceed with the baking instructions.

How To Store + Freeze

These sourdough muffins will last for up to 3 days in an airtight container. After the first two days, you can gently warm them in the mircrowave to refresh them.

They freeze really well. I like to freeze in individual ziploc bags for easy to grab snacks. Allow them to thaw at room temperature before gently warming them in the microwave.

Share the sourdough love!