Sourdough Huckleberry Muffins

I’ve been making a batch of these yummy sourdough huckleberry muffins every couple weeks this winter. They’re so easy to make and provide a healthy breakfast and snack for our family. We love to wild harvest huckleberries over the summer and preserve them to eat throughout the year. There’s nothing better than enjoying a tasty homemade huckleberry treat in the middle of a cold Montana winter!

This sourdough muffin recipe is not a true sourdough in the sense that all the dough is not fermented. To make a true sourdough recipe, you will need to let the dough sit and ferment for 8-12 hours. Often I think of making these muffins at the last minute and don’t take the time to let all the dough ferment. Half the batter is fed sourdough and the other half is freshly added flour. So those times I don’t think to make these in advance, we still get the partial benefit of having half the batter be fermented!

The great thing about this muffin recipe is that whether you make the batter and use it immediately or let it sit to fully ferment, the sourdough mixed with the baking soda will cause a natural bubbling reaction just like it does in our sourdough dandelion pancakes recipe. This reaction between the sourdough and baking soda is what makes the muffins rise and produce a yummy, fluffy muffin.

This recipe makes about 1 dozen muffins. I often double the recipe to make two dozen muffins thinking we will have some extra to freeze for the future. Instead, the muffins provide a healthy breakfast and snack for our family and lasts less than a week so I never end up having any to freeze!

Sourdough Huckleberry Muffins Recipe

Ingredients:

-1 cup whole wheat flour (you can also use all purpose flour but we prefer using whole wheat to make them healthier)

-1/2 cup unrefined sugar*

-1 tsp baking soda

-1/4 tsp salt

-1/2 cup huckleberries

-1 egg

-1 cup fed sourdough starter

-1 tsp vanilla extract (here’s how to make your own!)

-1/4 cup melted coconut oil OR butter

-2 TBS fresh squeezed lemon juice (my favorite to use is fresh squeezed Meyer lemons since they’re a tad sweet!) 

*I like to substitute our raw honey for sugar in this recipe. I follow the directions in this post on how to substitute honey in a recipe.  If you want to use honey instead of sugar, add the 1/2 cup of honey instead of sugar and do NOT add the coconut oil/butter. If doubling the recipe, you would add 1 cup of honey and 1/4 cup coconut oil/butter.

Directions:

1. Combine the whole wheat flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Stir to mix well.
2. Gently stir in the huckleberries (if using ones that were frozen and preserved, make sure they are thawed before mixing into the bowl)
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg and mix in the melted coconut oil/butter, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Stir in the fed sourdough starter. If you are using honey instead of sugar, stir the honey into sourdough mixture until mixed well. 
4. Gently fold the sourdough mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients. You will immediately start to see the sourdough and baking soda react with bubbles and the batter will start to fluff up- what an amazing process! It is important to gently fold the batter until mixed and not stir too vigorously or you risk damaging the bubbling process and will end up with flat, dense muffins!
5. Fill each muffin cup with batter. I find it is easiest to use a large spoon to scoop a blob of batter into each muffin cup since the batter isn’t thin so it doesn’t pour easily. 
6. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until the muffins are light brown on top. Once they cool off, enjoy your tasty huckleberry muffin! 

If you love huckleberries, be sure to also check out our recipe for delicious huckleberry pie!