Sourdough Discard Sandwich Bread

Ingredients

1 cup water 236 grams
1 tablespoon honey 21 grams
3 teaspoons active dry yeast 9 grams
4 tablespons butter softened (57 grams)
4 cups all purpose flour 560 grams
1/2 tablespoon salt 8 grams
1 cup sourdough discard 285 grams

Directions

1. Whisk together warm water, honey, and yeast. Allow it to sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes. The mixture should get nice and bubbly.
2. To a bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook attachment, add water yeast mixture, butter, flour, salt, and sourdough discard.
3. Knead on low speed until dough is smooth and elastic- about 10 minutes or so. It may take longer. You can also do this by hand. It shouldn't stick to the sides of the bowl.
4. To check to make sure the gluten has developed enough so the bread is nice and fluffy, it should pass the windowpane test. Grab a small ball of the dough and stretch it into a square. It should stretch thin enough to see through without breaking.
5. Place the dough in a greased bowl with a lid, plastic wrap, or towel.
6. Let the dough rise (also known as bulk rise) for about 1-2 hours (or until it about doubles in size) in a warm place like on top of a stove or on top of the refrigerator.
7. Grease 2 regular size bread pans or add parchment paper.
8. Divide dough into 2 pieces. Then roll the dough flat into a rectangle and roll it up. Pinch the ends to the rest of the loaf.
9. Add the shaped bread dough to the parchment lined or buttered loaf pans seam side down. Second rise for 30 minutes to an hour at room temperature, or until doubled. Covered with a towel.
10. Optional: whisk an egg in a small bowl. Brush on top of the dough.
11. Bake the sandwich loaf at 375 for about 45 minutes, or until a lovely golden brown color on top.
12. Allow to cool completely before slicing or storing.

Notes

• The internal temperature of baked bread should be between 195-210 degrees F
• Use really soft butter so it will combine with the rest of the dough ingredients really well and without chunks.
• Don’t over ferment the dough. It will turn into a wet sloppy disaster that won’t rise well.
• When making the dough, using a stand mixer makes the process much easier and hands off. You can also do this with your hands.

Sourdough Blueberry Muffins

 This recipe comes from SugarSpunRun.com, with my modifications. As usual, I've reduced the sugar and oil from the original recipe.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups (187 g) all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup white flour)
½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar (recipe called for 1 cup...too sweet!)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon table salt
½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter melted (I used 1/3 cup vegetable oil)
½ cup (105 g) sourdough discard
¾ cup (180 g) sour cream or plain full-fat Greek yogurt (I used vanilla yogurt)
1 large egg room temperature preferred
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups (210 g) fresh blueberries (I used frozen)
Granulated sugar for topping optional

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425F (220C) and line a 12-count muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter, sourdough discard, sour cream, egg, and vanilla extract until ingredients are evenly mixed.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry and use a spatula to gently fold together. Once batter is about 50% combined, add blueberries and continue to mix, gently, until blueberries are well-distributed and batter is just combined. Do not over-mix or muffins will be dense and dry.
5. Evenly divide batter into prepared muffin tin. If desired, sprinkle with granulated sugar.
6. Transfer to center rack of 425F (220C) oven and bake for 8 minutes, then, without opening the oven door, decrease oven temperature to 350F (175C) and bake for 12 minutes longer/until muffins are baked through. The tops will be beginning to turn a light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean or with moist crumbs.
7. Allow muffins to cool for 10 minutes in the muffin tin before carefully removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.