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Sourdough discard mini loaves with redcurrants and lemon vanilla Greek yogurt glaze in paper molds

Sourdough Discard Mini Loaves with Redcurrants

Sourdough discard mini loaves studded with tart redcurrants and finished with a soft lemon-vanilla Greek yogurt glaze — small, sharp and made with unfed starter straight from the fridge.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Cooling 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Servings: 12 mini loaves
Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: Nordic
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Batter
  • 240 g all-purpose flour 2 cups
  • 8 g baking powder 2 tsp
  • ½ tsp fine salt
  • 113 g butter ½ cup/ 1 stick, melted and slightly cooled
  • 200 g granulated sugar 1 cup
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 tbsp vanilla sugar — see Notes
  • 170 g plain Greek yogurt ¾ cup, full fat
  • 120 g sourdough discard ½ cup, unfed, straight from the fridge
Berries
  • 400 g fresh redcurrants 3½ cups, stripped from the stems
  • 1 tbsp all-purpose flour for tossing the berries
Lemon-vanilla Greek yogurt glaze (enough for all 12 — see Notes to glaze just a few)
  • 480 g plain Greek yogurt 2 cups, full fat and thick, strained style (Fage 5% or Chobani whole milk)
  • 65 g powdered sugar ½ cup + 1 tbsp, start here and adjust to taste
  • 1½ tsp vanilla extract or 3 tbsp vanilla sugar, see Notes
  • 1 lemon, zested for the glaze, plus a little held back for the tops

Equipment

  • Paper mini loaf molds (3½ x 2 in / 9 x 5 cm)
  • Rimmed sheet pan The paper molds need a flat tray under them to move in and out of the oven safely.
  • Digital kitchen scale With 400 g of fruit going into the batter, weighing the flour is what keeps the crumb from going heavy.
  • Silicone spatula Folds fragile redcurrants in without bursting them.
  • Fine zester / rasp grater One lemon does the whole batch — the zest is where nearly all of the lemon flavour lives.
  • Small offset spatula For spreading glaze neatly on a small surface.

Method
 

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F / 180°C. Set 12 paper mini loaf molds on a rimmed sheet pan.
  2. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, yogurt and sourdough discard. Whisk until the batter is even and glossy.
  4. Fold in the dry ingredients with a spatula and stop as soon as no dry flour is left. The batter should be thick and a little lumpy — don't beat it smooth.
  5. Toss the redcurrants with 1 tbsp flour, then fold them in gently, holding back a small handful to scatter over the tops.
  6. Divide the batter between the molds — a scant ½ cup (about 110 g) each, filling them roughly three-quarters full. Scatter the reserved berries over the tops.
  7. Bake for 35 minutes, until the tops are golden and springy and a skewer in the centre of one comes out clean.
  8. Leave the loaves in their molds and cool them completely on a wire rack. They have to be cold before the glaze goes on.
  9. Whisk the Greek yogurt, powdered sugar, vanilla and lemon zest together until smooth. Spoon it over the cooled loaves, spread it to the edges and finish with a little more zest. Serve straight away.

Notes

Chef's tip — the yogurt is the recipe. This glaze holds its shape purely on the thickness of the yogurt, so use full-fat, strained Greek yogurt (Fage 5% or Chobani whole milk are both thick enough). Low-fat, "Greek-style" or regular plain yogurt will slide straight off and soak into the crumb. If your yogurt still feels loose, set it in a sieve lined with a paper towel for 30 minutes and let some whey drain off. It never sets — and that's the point. This is a soft, cream-like glaze, not a powdered sugar glaze that dries to a crackle. It's barely sweet, which is exactly what you want against 400 g of sharp redcurrants. Spoon it on just before serving.
Glaze only what you're eating. Unglazed loaves keep in their molds at room temperature for 3 days. Once glazed, they need the fridge and are best the same day. Our own ratio for a couple at a time: 80 g yogurt, 1 tbsp powdered sugar, ¼ tsp vanilla extract and a little lemon zest.
Vanilla sugar instead of extract. This is how we make it, and it's worth doing if you can get hold of Scandinavian vanilla sugar. In the batter, swap the 1 tsp extract for 1 tbsp vanilla sugar and take the same tablespoon off the granulated sugar. In the glaze, swap the 1½ tsp extract for 3 tbsp vanilla sugar and pull the powdered sugar back to 2 tbsp (24 g) — the vanilla sugar is doing most of the sweetening at that point. Either way, whisk the glaze a minute longer so the granules dissolve properly.
Make your own vanilla sugar. Blitz dried vanilla pods with granulated sugar in a food processor until fine, then sieve out the coarse pieces. There's no fixed ratio — the more pod you use, the stronger it gets, so make it to your own taste. Stored dry in a sealed jar it keeps almost indefinitely.
Berries. Fresh redcurrants if you can find them — frozen work just as well, folded in still frozen so they don't bleed. Blackcurrants, raspberries, blueberries and cranberries all work in the same weight.
Use the discard cold and unfed. The baking powder does all the lifting here, so the discard is there purely for flavour and acidity. Straight from the fridge is exactly what you want — no feeding, no waiting for it to peak.