My husband has been making sourdough bread for some months now so he asked me if I wanted to do something with the discard he had over the weekend.

What is the discard? When you make sourdough bread you have a starter that you have to feed with flour and water. When you do that, you have to take some out of the container and this is called the discard. Some people use this discard to bake stuff like quick breads, crackers, cookies, etc.

Today, I’m going to show how to use this discard when making banana bread. The result of this experiment was amazing a delicious. You can taste a tiny bit of the sourdough not that much. It also helped to increase the rise.

If you make sourdough bread at home and you want to use the discard, this recipe is for you.

If you don’t have sourdough discard, you can till make this recipe, just add 1/4 cup more milk.

Videos of how to make this recipe are posted on my Instagram @Pastry_Tales

Let’s start with the recipe.

Yield one 9×5 inch loaf pan

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 medium/large size ripe bananas or 3 if they are small (mash them with a fork)

1 cup light brown sugar

1 and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs at room temperature

1/2 cup sourdough discard (bubbly and active)

1/2 cup vegetable/canola oil

1/4 + 1 tablespoon cup milk at room temperature . You can use any milk you want. I used 1% fat lactose free

Optional: chopped walnuts. I don’t recommend adding chocolate chips because you want to taste the light flavor of the sourdough.

Directions

1.- Preheat oven to 360 F. Using butter grease your loaf pan bottom and sides. Set aside.

2.- In a small bowl mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

3.- In another bowl and using a mixer (if you have it) mix mashed bananas, sugar and vanilla. Mix for 30 seconds. Then, add eggs one by one mixing well after each addition. Add oil and milk, mix in medium-high speed. Add sourdough discard and mix for 1 minute.

4.- In low speed, add your dry ingredients just until you don’t see any leftover flour. Please, do not overmix because if you do, your bread will be hard as a brick.

5.-If you are using nuts, this is the time to add them and fold them with a spatula. If not using nuts, pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and smooth the top with the spatula or a spoon.

6.- Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Remember that each oven works different so I recomend that you pay attention to your bread when it reaches the 40 minute baking time. If you notice the top of your bread is getting too dark but it needs more baking time, just grab a piece of foil and cover the top slightly and keep baking.

7.- Let it cool completely. Grab a cup of coffee or tea. Enjoy!