Sourdough Walnut Banana Bread
a sweet way to use up sourdough discard
It seems bold to post a recipe embracing two things that had their moment in the sun peak pandemic—sourdough and banana bread. I wonder how many pandemic sourdough starters have since been abandoned? Did some of you make so much banana bread in the spring and summer of 2020 you never want to see a loaf again in your life? If you fit into neither of these categories, then you may find this new recipe a welcome entry in your files.
I must confess it rarely occurs to me to use sourdough starter outside of traditional bread making or pizza dough, crackers and the occasional waffle. Sourdough in sweet recipes always perplexed me until I had an aha moment a few weeks ago while chatting with my boss who also keeps a starter.
Sweet recipes using sourdough are more a vehicle for using up sourdough discard, the portion leftover after feeding your starter. I always looked at starter as a natural leavening agent, which of course it is, but using up the discard in a variety of ways, such as in sweet recipes, is also a nice way to get more fermented foods into your diet. I don’t know much benefit it offers compared to the cultures in something like yogurt or other fermented foods.
With my outlook now changed, and an abundance of bread in the house, I decided to put my discard to a new use and bake a new banana bread recipe to add to the collection with my other favorite ones (you can search the archives by clicking here). I decided to add walnuts because they’re my favorite but pecans, pistachios or even a variety of seeds would work well. Don’t skip the coarse sugar on top—it adds a lovely crunch and some extra sweetness since there isn’t a lot of sugar in the recipe.
You'll find this banana bread is more breadlike compared to other quick bread recipes which are really cakes and not breads. I attribute this to the addition of the sourdough starter. As mentioned, the recipe doesn’t call for a lot of sugar, and this is intentional. Very ripe bananas have a concentrated sweetness, and I don’t like super sweet cakes, so I’m especially conservative in the amount of sugar. If you have more of a sweet tooth, you can increase the sugar to a ½ cup (but no more!) or try using brown sugar in place of the granulated natural cane sugar.
Last note, and my plea yet again for those of you hesitant to bake by weight. There’s a weight measurement for the bananas for a reason. Bananas really run the gamut when it comes to size, and anything more than what’s noted here will affect the success of your banana bread.
Hope the weekend has been a good one, and the week ahead is gentle. Remember to be kind. —xo, j.
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