I’m not sure if there is anything better than a nice, warm, fresh out of the oven sourdough muffin on a cold morning. Overnight sourdough muffins are perfect to whip up the night before and finish in the morning for a breakfast of champions.
Using this basic overnight sourdough muffin recipe you can mix in fruit, nuts or chocolate chips- whatever you are in the mood for!
Overnight Sourdough Muffins
It seems like sourdough has become a new hobby for many during these crazy quarantine times we are living in. I’ve seen people make their own sourdough starters and then share with friends. I love seeing people learn something new and create things in their kitchen. Being able to make your own food and bread is a true passion of mine and I love teaching and sharing it with you.
It is a common misconception that sourdough is just a bread with a hard crust. You can use sourdough for any type of bread, waffles, crackers, muffins or even pizza crust. The sky is the limit once you have your own starter.
Baking with sourdough is getting back to basics with food. It is how people used to make bread before active yeast was widely available in every grocery store.
How to make overnight sourdough muffins:
- It's super easy! Just mix together your starter, flour, and water until you can combine it well.
- Cover the mixture and let it rest 8-12 hours (generally overnight).
- Add the additional ingredients needed in the morning, stir it on up, and bake!
- You'll be ready to eat warm sourdough muffins in about 30 minutes.
More Sourdough Recipes:
- Sourdough Banana Bread
- Sourdough Chocolate Muffins
- How to Make a Sourdough Starter
- Crusty Sourdough Bread Recipe
Overnight Sourdough Muffins
- Total Time: 8+ hours
- Yield: 18 muffins 1x
Description
A basic overnight sourdough muffin recipe that uses whole wheat flour and sourdough starter as a base that you can customize as you like!
Ingredients
- ½ cup bubbly and active sourdough starter
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat or all-purpose flour
- 6-10 tablespoons of water, as needed
- ½ cup light oil or melted butter
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional
- ½ cup fresh or dried fruit and/or chopped nuts, optional
Instructions
- The night before you plan to make the muffins mix together sourdough starter, flour, water together in a medium mixing bowl.
- The mixture should be a shaggy slightly wet dough, not thick but not soupy either. The amount of water you need will depend a lot on the type of flour that you use; you’ll need more water when using whole wheat flour. Adjust the water by adding 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough is just wet enough to mix.
- Cover the bowl with a damp clean kitchen towel and let the dough rest for 8-12 hours.
- In the morning, after the resting time, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Add the oil, sugar, eggs, baking soda, and salt to the bowl with the fermented flour mixture and stir just until the mixture comes together.
- Next decide if you are going to add anything else. If you aren’t going to add fruit or nuts, I’d at least add 1 teaspoon cinnamon, it makes the muffins have a little more depth too them.
- You can also add roughly ½ cup total of fresh fruit, dried chopped fruit, or chopped nuts or seeds if you’d like. Please see notes. Stir in any additions.
- Grease 18 muffin cups well and then pour the batter evenly into the muffin cups, the cups will be about half full.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until the muffins spring back when lightly touched.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before removing the muffins from the tin. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
Notes
- You can add all kinds of things to this muffin recipe! We like to add frozen blueberries, small chopped apples and pecans, dried cranberries and 1 tablespoon of orange zest. There’s lots of options! I typically will toss any fresh fruit or frozen fruit with a little flour before adding it to encourage it to not sink to the bottom while baking.
- You can make different sized muffins depending on how full you fill the tins; these are pretty small muffins and perfect for kids. Adjust the cooking time accordingly if you are filling the tins up more or less.
- Prep Time: 20 min
- Cook Time: 25 min
- Category: breakfast
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: sourdough muffins, sourdough muffin recipe, overnight sourdough muffins, long fermented muffin recipe, long fermentation sourdough muffins
Health benefits of letting the muffins ferment overnight:
Sourdough not only tastes delicious but it boasts plenty of health benefits when you let the flour and sourdough sit overnight. Let’s dive in for a little science lesson.
Even though sourdough is made up of the same basic ingredients as conventional bread, the fermentation process changes the game a bit making it more nutritious.
Sourdough bacteria are able to breakdown phytic acid found in whole grains. Phytic acid are commonly referred to as phytates. Phytates bind to minerals making it difficult for your body to absorb. This process creates a bread that has a much lower phytate content than other types of bread.
By doing this, our bodies can absorb more minerals such as iron, potassium, magnesium, and zinc. It is remarkable to witness something as simple as water, flour and air transform into delicious muffins, breads, pizza or waffles.
Studies have shown that sourdough bread doesn’t raise your blood sugar as much as other types of breads. Sourdough is a healthier option and easier to digest. Score! I have found this true in my own life. Long fermented sourdough baked goods don't cause stomach trouble for me.
What is different about sourdough bread?
Regular bread uses store bought yeast while sourdough bread is made from a starter. You can either make your own, buy a starter, or get some from a friend.
How long does it take to make a sourdough starter?
It takes about 5 days to make a sourdough starter. It’s simple but takes a bit of patience. Each day you add flour and water to feed the starter.
How long can sourdough starter stay fresh in the fridge?
Sourdough starter will last up until 2 months in the fridge without any attention. However, if you continue to feed it, it can last years! Mine is 25 years old.
I hope you give overnight sourdough muffins a try. They are incredibly tasty and healthy too.
Hannah
I won't yet rate this recipe, because I want to give it a fair shot. I followed the directions to the tee and my muffins came out tasting very "eggy". I'm wondering if there is a way to avoid that or maybe a step I did indeed miss?
Melissa
Hmmmmm, that's a new one for me. Do you feel like you were able to work the eggs into the batter well? Sometimes the slimy eggs and the wet overnight mixture need a heavy hand of mixing to get them to come together.
Andrew
Great recipe! I has been making these for a few years. I recommend adding walnuts and extra cinnamon.
★★★★★
Adriana
Thank you for this recipe they turned out really well, even though I made a few adjustments as I struggle to follow recipes. I swapped out half the oil and replaced it with apple sauce. I then cut the sugar in half, grated a small carrot and two small apples. Very very delicious!
★★★★★
Melissa
The beauty of being a good cook, I get it 🙂 They sounds amazing!
Cathy
These are great little muffins!
And I really thought I had messed them up, but they still turned out amazing. First, I used discard … I had just fed my starter and my discard jar was almost full, so I used it for the recipe instead of a bubbly fresher fed sourdough starter. Then, I probably should have added more water - I added 6 TBS - because I had to kind of get in and knead the levain to get it to hold together at all. In the morning, since the levain was still so stiff, I had to put it all in the stand mixer and use the paddle attachment to get the butter and eggs to mix in. My add-ins were 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp Apple Pie Spice blend, 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. I portioned it into the muffin tin (12 hole), and tasted the dough … realized I had forgotten the sugar and salt, YIKES! So, I scraped it all back into the mixing bowl and added the sugar and salt, hoping that I wouldn’t end up overworking the batter.
Finally, popped them in the oven, and 25 minutes later we had delicious muffins! I just love a recipe that is resilient enough to survive several missteps along the way.
★★★★★
Melissa
I've totally done the "I forgot something important and had to scrape out the batter from the pan" thing before, lol, I totally get it! I'm so glad they turned out well for you and you loved them. Thank you for leaving a review!
Tamara
I started this recipe this evening because I thought it was sourdough banana. 😄 Guess my reading skills need some help! 😄 I've made sourdough banana muffins before, but the recipe didn't require the overnight ferment. I really like the overnight fermentation time! So, I'm going to try these tomorrow and add overripe banana! I was thinking half a cup, but I may increase it. Going rogue, here! 😄
Sarah
when do you put in the melted butter? maybe I am just not seeing it??
Melissa
It's in step 5, you add it in the morning after the first overnight ferment.
Elyse
Sooo good!! My boys love them and even my picky eater friend ate quite a few! About to make another batch!
★★★★★
Viviane
Can I try these without the baking soda? I’m looking for a muffin recipe with only sourdough for leavening! Thank you! Great page!
★★★★★
Melissa
Yes! I think you'll find success! Maybe let them rise in the pan longer!
Monika
Oh man, these were delicious!! They are super moist with a wonderful crumb, light and airy. I subbed mine with raw milk instead of water and added frozen blueberries on top not in the mix. Baked them 20 minutes half in muffin tins & donut tins. Absolutely scrumptious! 10/10 recommend and our family of 7 will be making these forever now. Thank you!!
★★★★★
Melissa
I'm so glad you liked them Monika!! Great idea on putting them in the donut tin!
Beth Nicol
So -- if I want the overnight ferment, but your chocolate muffins then I'll try adding the "extras" from the chocolate muffins after letting the flour, water and starter sit overnight. What do you think?
Melissa
If you try it let me know!!
Joanne
These were yummy plain. My family really enjoyed them. Next time I will add berries or maybe apples.
★★★★★
CMK
Came out great! Added frozen blueberries and no cinnamon. I wasn’t sure how the overnight mix should look, I added water till I had a thick pancake batter, seemed to work great. Yummy! Thank you for a great recipe!
★★★★★
Mary
What I really liked about these muffins was the long fermentation--that alone is motivation to explore the possibilities by experimenting to my heart's content! Has anyone tried wetter fruit, like applesauce, pumpkin, grated carrots, or bananas?
Alli
Our daughter has an egg allergy so we use applesauce instead of the egg. This recipe still works great! We like to mix in diced apples too. It has become our go-to muffin recipe!
★★★★★
Melissa
Oh, I love that applesauce works, that's really simple!
Paige
Hi, excited to try this. What kind of sugar did you use?
Melissa
I have organic granulated sugar at home!
Kaysha
These were very easy to make and super tasty! I just went with a simple add-in of 1.5 teaspoons cinnamon and a little splash of vanilla for a very warm flavor for this muffin! Thanks for the recipe!
★★★★★
Angela
So good!! For my add-ins, I did lemon zest and juice from one lemon and 1T poppyseeds. Delish! The whole family loved them.
★★★★★
Melissa
Ohhhh that sounds incredible! I hadn't thought of a lemon poppy seed option!