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Easy Sourdough Banana Bread

This is an easy and soft sourdough banana bread. You can bake it as one standard loaf, or as mini loaves! I love adding candied ginger, too, for a little something extra. If you’re not a candied ginger fan, you can just leave it out, or swap it for chopped nuts or chocolate chips!

Sourdough banana bread close up, sliced on a wooden board.

If you’re looking for sourdough discard recipes after making regular sourdough bread, this is the perfect way to use up excess sourdough starter.

It is moist and full of flavor. This recipe is best made using overripe bananas. It’s a great way to use up old bananas lying around! Overripe bananas are the sweetest, have the most banana flavor, and are easiest to mash.

You can use an unfed sourdough starter discard or a bubbly starter.

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bitten slice of banana bread.

The ingredients

The ingredients are listed in the full recipe card at the bottom of this post but here is a run-through of them with a few extra details. 

  • Bananas – This is an obvious must-have in a sourdough banana loaf. Extra-ripe brown bananas are best. They provide sweetness and flavour to the recipe as well as add moisture to the bread. It needs about 2 large mashed bananas. 
  • Butter – melted butter for rich flavour.
  • Brown sugar – sweetness and caramel notes.
  • Eggs – for structure.
  • Vanilla & salt – For flavour.
  • Sourdough starter – Unfed, leftover starter or bubbly fed starter can be used but acidic unfed starter will give the best results.
  • All-purpose flour – For a little extra fiber, half the all-purpose flour can be substituted with whole wheat flour.
  • Baking soda – This reacts with the acid in the starter to create the rise in the bread.
  • Candied ginger – an optional extra but one that brings little explosions of flavour through the banana bread. Finely dice it into tiny pieces, or leave them a bit bigger depending on preference.

Candied ginger is made from a ginger root that has been cooked in sugar syrup and then dried out into sweet, spicy and chewy flavour explosions. It’s strong in flavour so a little goes a long way.

You can cut it into large pieces, or spread out the flavour more and finely dice it. An addition like this adds something special to banana bread.

Other details

This quick bread recipe can be made in under an hour, or you can make overnight sourdough banana bread.

This recipe can be made in a range of pan sizes. Either –

  • an 8 tray mini loaf pan
  • or an 8×4 inch loaf pan (21×11 cm)

The method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease an 8 mini loaf pan or one large loaf pan.
  2. Melt the butter in the microwave or on the stove. Let it cool slightly.
  3. Finely dice the candied ginger into pieces of your choosing. It’s very strong in flavour so smaller pieces are best
  1. In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas with a fork, then stir in the butter. Add in the brown sugar, egg, vanilla and sourdough starter and stir it well together until all combined.
  2. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking soda.
  3. Tip the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients along with the diced ginger and fold it together until the flour mixture is well combined but not overmixed. Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf pan.

Sugar topping

  1. In a small bowl, mix cinnamon and granulated sugar. Sprinkle this over the batter for a little extra flavor and crunch. If baking in a loaf pan, you can add an extra sliced banana on top for decoration too.
banana bread in a pan.

Baking

  1. Bake in the preheated oven. The mini loaves will bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. The top of the bread should spring back when touched and a skewer inserted in the center of the loaf should come out clean.
  2. If baking a large loaf, the baking time should be increased to around 60 minutes.

Serving and Storing

Serve the banana bread fresh with a pat of butter. Leftover sourdough banana loaves can be covered and stored at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Banana bread freezes very well too. Cover the cooled bread tightly with aluminium foil or in an airtight container and freeze for up to three months.

sourdough mini banana bread loaves
side view of sugar topped banana bread.

More sourdough discard recipes

Sourdough banana bread close up, sliced on a wooden board.

Easy Sourdough Banana Bread

Elien
Soft sourdough banana bread with spicy candied ginger. Bake them as mini loaves, or as one large loaf.
4.93 from 13 votes
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Course Sourdough
Servings 1 standard loaf or 8 mini loaves
Calories 337 kcal

Ingredients
 
 

Sourdough Banana Bread

  • 100 g butter
  • 250 g overripe bananas
  • 150 g soft brown sugar
  • 100 g sourdough discard starter
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 250 g all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 50 g crystallised ginger optional

Cinnamon sugar Topping

  • 2 Tbsp granulated white sugar
  • 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
  • Grease an 8-mini loaf pan or a standard loaf pan
  • Melt the butter in the microwave or on the stove. Let it cool slightly.
  • Finely dice the candied ginger into small 2mm/ 1/16th inch pieces.
  • In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Add in the cooled butter, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and sourdough starter and stir well until all are combined.
  • In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
  • Tip the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients along with the diced ginger and fold it together until well combined but not over-mixed.
  • If you want to ferment the batter before baking, the bowl can be covered and refrigerated for 6 hours, or overnight before baking.
  • Spoon the mixture into loaf pans/s.
  • Mix together the sugar and cinnamon for the topping and sprinkle over the top of the batter.
  • Bake the mini loaves for 20-25 minutes until the tops spring back when touched and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. If baking a large loaf, the baking time should be increased to around 60-65 minutes.

Notes

Overnight banana bread
If you want the sourdough starter to ferment the flour, the batter can be rested in the refrigerator overnight.
Cup conversions – Use the toggle if you want to see US-customary cup conversions. Note that these are smaller than metric cups and this recipe is best made using grams for consistency.

Nutrition

Serving: 1servingCalories: 337kcalCarbohydrates: 54gProtein: 5gFat: 12gSaturated Fat: 7gPolyunsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 73mgSodium: 407mgFiber: 2gSugar: 26g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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12 Comments

  1. The recipe doesn’t say when to add the 150g brown sugar ???
    I forgot about it but then added at the end as the batter didn’t taste right 😊

  2. Hi, I would really like to try this banana bread recipe but don’t have a recipe for a sour dough starter. Can you please help me with this.

  3. This is a keeper, loved the simplicity and great use of extra starter.

    Appreciate you sharing your passion… my bread making has improved heaps.

    one point, in Oz we have baking powder and bicarbonate soda. I assumed the latter and it worked fine.

  4. Hi,

    I would like to try this as have heaps of sourdough discard to use up. I wondered if I could sub some or all of the brown sugar with honey and also reduce the amount of sugar? I am cooking for toddlers hence the question.
    Cheers

  5. Really nice and simple recipe.
    I added a spoon of strong (sweet chestnut) honey (couldn’t resist) and a few broken pecan nuts.
    Thanks for sharing your talents and recipes!

  6. Can you please give the standard measurements (cup / tablespoon/teaspoon/etc.)? I don’t have a scale for measuring the ingredients.

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