Blueberry Cornmeal Sourdough Muffins

These Blueberry Cornmeal Sourdough Muffins are perfect for bakers who keep a sourdough starter around for making bread.

One of the things about maintaining a sourdough starter is the requirement to discard some of it prior to feeding it. Unless you are a professional baker and make sourdough on a daily basis, you will have to eventually throw out a good portion of your starter when you double it with more flour and water. Otherwise, as anyone who is mathematically inclined and familiar with the term "exponential" will realize, the starter will eventually pretty much take over your house.

Fortunately, there are many ways to put the sourdough discard to good use, including waffles, pancakes, cakes, English muffins, crackers, and these muffins.

These muffins are moist and tasty, and perfect for breakfast. The combination of the blueberries, cinnamon, and maple syrup, along with the crunchy cornmeal make them pretty tasty.

I used discard from my 100% (equal parts flour and water by weight) hydration sourdough starter and some extra large blueberries to make these muffins. If you don't have a sourdough starter, you can mix together a poolish of 4 ounces flour, 4 ounces water, and 1/8 teaspoon instant yeast, and let it sit covered for 24 hours, until bubbly.

After the recipe, check out what the rest of the #MuffinMonday bakers created.

Blueberry Cornmeal Sourdough Muffin Recipe

Makes 12 muffins, adapted from Sift, Spring 2016

Ingredients

1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) unbleached all purpose flour

1 cup (4 7/8 ounces) yellow cornmeal

3/4 tsp salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup (8 ounces) sourdough starter

1/4 cup milk

1 large egg

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 cups (12 ounces) blueberries

Demerara sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degees F and line a 12 cavity muffin tin with paper liners. Spray the liners with spray oil. 
2. Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
3. In another bowl, combine the starter, milk, egg, oil, and syrup.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix for about 20 seconds, until just combined. 
5. Fold in the blueberries.
6. Divide the batter among the 12 cavities of the muffin tin. 
7. Sprinkle the tops with the demerara sugar. 
8. Bake the muffins for about 25 minutes. 
9. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, and then transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely. 
10. Store cooled muffins in an airtight container. 

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Here's what we made this month:

• Apple Carrot Muffins from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Blueberry Cornmeal Sourdough Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Cherry Chocolate Chip Muffins from Palatable Pastime
• Cinnamon Molasses Muffins from Passion Kneaded  
• Cranberry White Chocolate Muffins from Making Miracles
• Peanut Butter Cup Stuffed Chocolate Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Sour Cream and Green Onion Corn Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Spicy and Sweet Hummus Muffins from Kelli’s Kitchen
• Strawberry Vanilla Yogurt Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.