Kitchen · Des Moines Quadrangle September 7, 2026
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Food · Mine

Sourdough Pumpkin Banana Muffins

Two hours of rest before the leavening goes anywhere near the bowl.

350°F
Oven
2 hr
Rest
20–25 min
Bake
18
Makes
Print card One page, US Letter (PDF)
§ 01 · Ingredients and method 350°F
Three pumpkin banana muffins in parchment wrappers on a counter, oat and almond crumble across the tops.

Rest these together

  • 113 g Butter, melted
  • 160 g Dark brown sugar, packed
  • 248 g Pumpkin puree
  • 120 g Banana, mashed, one large
  • 2 Eggs, large
  • 120 g Active starter
  • 5 ml Vanilla
  • 240 g All-purpose flour
  • 6 g Salt

Add after the rest

  • 6 g Baking soda
  • 8 g Baking powder
  • 5 g Pumpkin pie spice

Crumble

  • 75 g Brown sugar, packed
  • 57 g Butter, softened
  • 35 g Rolled oats
  • 15 g Sliced almonds
  • 20 g Flour
  • 2.5 g Pumpkin pie spice
  • 2.5 ml Almond extract
  1. Whisk the melted butter and brown sugar together. Add the eggs, vanilla, pumpkin, banana, and starter.
  2. Fold in the flour and salt until just combined. Cover and rest two hours at room temperature. Leave the soda and powder out for now.
  3. Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease or line 18 muffin wells.
  4. Whisk the baking soda, baking powder, and spice together, then fold them into the rested batter. Stop the moment it looks even. This is the one place overmixing costs you rise.
  5. For the crumble, work the almond extract into the softened butter first, then rub that into the sugar, flour, oats, almonds, and spice with your fingers until it clumps.
  6. Scoop the batter evenly into the wells and top each one with crumble.
  7. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.
  8. Cool a few minutes in the pan, then move them to a rack.
Watch out
  • Keep the soda and powder out until after the rest. Soda reacts with the starter's acid on contact, so two hours in the bowl spends the rise before the pan ever gets to the oven.

Overnight version. Rest 6 hours at room temperature, then refrigerate overnight. Mash the banana in the next morning, before the soda and powder.

Storage. Sealed at room temperature 5 days, or 6 months in the freezer.

§ 02 · Notes Notes
§ 02 Reasoning that doesn't belong on a card

A few notes.

This started as someone else’s recipe. I’ve changed it enough times that it’s basically mine now.

During the two hours the flour hydrates all the way through, the starter gets time to work on it, and the crumb comes out tender rather than tight.

The leavening doesn’t get those two hours though. Baking soda reacts with acid the moment they touch and an active starter is ALL acid, so mixing it in at the start spends the rise quietly on the counter and leaves the oven a flat batter. That’s the reason for the two ingredient groups.

Pumpkin and banana together bring a lot of water and sweetness, so this batter runs wetter than a normal muffin batter. Don’t correct it with flour -the rest handles it.