In a rush? You can skip straight to my sourdough discard cinnamon bread recipe at my tumblr. Or you can jump to my Just the Basics section.
Do you have a lot of discard that you don’t know what to do with? My sourdough discard artisan-style bread recipe is one of my most popular options. It makes a classic loaf with a crispy crust that’s perfect for sandwiches.
But artisan-style bread takes a lot of time and patience.
Most days, I don’t have that kind of patience. I want to use up my starter fast, and I want bread NOW. I don’t want to spend a lot of time baking, and I don’t want to deal with a lot of dishes and cleanup.
So this week, I’m proud to present sourdough discard cinnamon bread.
Fun, Fast, and Flavorful
This bread is a super-fast, super-easy, no-mess-no-fuss kind of recipe. Just stir all the ingredients together, pop it in the oven, and bam! Gorgeous bread to impress your friends and family.
The sourdough tang blends perfectly with the cinnamon and the nutmeg. Although the loaf is sweet enough on its own, I’ve included an optional drizzle that makes this quick bread tastes like a luscious dessert. If you’ve ever made Amish Friendship bread, this loaf has a lot of similarities in flavor.
Sourdough discard cinnamon bread is perfect for breakfasts. I like to have a slice or two with a cup of hot chocolate in the mornings. And it stays fresh for about 3 to 4 days at room temperature if sealed tightly in a bag or container with a lid.
And the best part of this bread? You can make it in just over an hour. No need to worry about rise times or punching down a loaf or second guessing your shaping.
Time
Prep time: 10 Minutes
Rise time: None
Cook time: 50 to 55 Minutes
Total time: 1 Hour to 1 Hour 5 Minutes
Ingredients
If you want to make this quick bread recipe, you’ll need the following:
- 180 Grams (1 1/2 Cups) All-Purpose Flour
- 201 Grams (1 Cup) White Sugar
- 6 Grams (1 1/2 Teaspoons) Baking Powder
- 5 Grams (1 Teaspoon) Salt
- 5 Grams (2 Teaspoons) Ground Cinnamon
- 1 Gram (1/2 Teaspoon) Ground Nutmeg
- 226 Grams (1 Cup) Sourdough Discard
- 55 Grams (1/4 Cup) Milk
- 4.2 Grams (1 Teaspoon) Vanilla Extract
- 112 Grams (1/2 Cup) Butter, Melted
- 1 Large Egg
Glaze Topping
- 32 Grams (1/4 Cup) Confectioners’ Sugar
- 10 Grams (1 to 2 Teaspoons) Milk
Keep in mind that the glaze topping is completely optional! Sourdough discard cinnamon bread is sweet enough on its own. If you’d rather, you can spread a smidgeon of butter on each slice.
Additional Equipment
Sourdough discard cinnamon bread doesn’t require fancy tools like artisan-style loaves do. However, you do need a few basic items:
- Mixing Bowls, Cups, Spoons
- Kitchen Scale
- 9-Inch by 5-Inch Baking Pan
- Wire Cooling Rack
- Oven Mitts
- Probe Thermometer
Keep in mind that you don’t have to buy your gear from Amazon. Most of these things are available at your local store for an affordable price. I provide links to items I like and receive a commission if readers buy something – but my opinions are my own.
Instructions
Before you get baking, make sure you have all your ingredients and equipment readily available. Once you’re prepped, go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (176 degrees Celsius).
Next, grab a large mixing bowl and whisk together your dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Then, grab a smaller mixing bowl and combine your wet ingredients: sourdough discard, milk, vanilla extract, butter, and egg.
Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and stir until everything is just moistened. Over mixing the batter will result in a sunken loaf.
Once you’ve got a smooth batter, pour it into a lightly greased 9-inch by 5-inch baking pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes to 55 minutes. The top should have a light golden color. If you have a probe thermometer, the internal temperature should read at least 195 degrees (90 degrees Celsius).
Keep the bread in the pan and place it on a wire cooling rack to cool for 15 minutes.
After it’s had a chance to cool somewhat, use a knife to loosen the edges of the bread from the pan and then turn it out onto the wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
While your bread cools, feel free to stir together the glaze if you want.
Once the bread has finished cooling, drizzle the glaze over the top of the loaf.
And you’re done!
Freeze – Don’t Refrigerate
Feel free to slice and serve, or if you’re not ready to eat it quite yet, feel free to seal it in a bag at room temperature. Make sure the bread has completely cooled before you store it in the bag, however. If you store it prematurely, the bread will sweat and soften.
If you are making this bread in advance and want to freeze it, wrap the loaf tightly in plastic first and then cover with aluminum foil. It will stay fresh this way in the freezer for about 3 to 6 months. When you’re ready to eat it, take it out of the freezer and allow it to thaw overnight so it’s ready for breakfast the next day.
Just the Basics
Sourdough Discard Cinnamon Bread
Ingredients
For the Bread
- 180 Grams All-Purpose Flour (1 1/2 Cups)
- 201 Grams White Granulated Sugar (1 Cup)
- 6 Grams Baking Powder (1 1/2 Teaspoons)
- 5 Grams Salt (1 Teaspoon)
- 5 Grams Ground Cinnamon (2 Teaspoons)
- 1 Gram Ground Nutmeg (1/2 Teaspoon)
- 226 Grams Sourdough Discard (1 Cup)
- 55 Grams Milk (1/4 Cup)
- 4.2 Grams Vanilla Extract (1 Teaspoon)
- 112 Grams Butter, Melted (1/2 Cup)
- 1 Large Egg
For the Glaze
- 32 Grams Confectioner's Sugar, Powdered Sugar (1/4 Cup)
- 10 Grams Milk (1 to 2 Teaspoons)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit (176° Celsius).
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- In a smaller mixing bowl, combine wet ingredients: sourdough discard, milk, vanilla extract, butter, and egg.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until just moistened.
- Pour batter into a lightly greased 9-inch by 5-inch baking pan.
- Bake at for 50 minutes to 55 minutes. Internal temperature should reach at least 195° Fahrenheit (90° Celsius).
- Let cool in pan on wire cooling rack for 15 minutes.
- Use a knife to loosen bread from pan and turn out onto wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
- While bread cools, stir together powdered sugar and milk to form a glaze. After the bread has finished cooling, drizzle glaze over the top.
Notes
Secrets to Success
Sourdough discard cinnamon bread is a great choice for beginners. Unlike many sourdough bread recipes, this loaf doesn’t require any specialized timing of the starter. You can use fed or unfed starter or straight up discard and the loaf will taste heavenly.
Additionally, this recipe doesn’t require any specialized tools or unique shaping methods for success. I love that you can just stir everything together and it’s ready to go with little to no effort.
However, like many quick breads, sourdough discard cinnamon bread does come with one caveat. If you stir it too much, the bread will sink in the middle and it won’t have those gorgeous cracks that indicate a well-baked quick loaf.
If you look closely in this photo, you can see that I may have mixed my bread batter just a little too much. Although it has those lovely cracks, the bread does sink a little in the middle. Not much, but it’s there.
Fortunately, a little glaze is more than enough to hide any sinking. And even if your loaf does sink in the middle, the dip won’t affect the flavor at all. It will still make for a yummy snack even if it doesn’t look picture perfect.
Also, I have struggled with quick breads sticking to the pan in the past. While I didn’t have any trouble with this particular recipe, I know it’s a possibility. If your bread tends to stick to the pan even after greasing, consider lining the pan with parchment paper so you can pull it out of the pan without too much trouble.
Nutritional Information
Sourdough Discard Cinnamon Bread is more dessert than bread. It has a lot of sugar to sweeten it, not including the optional glaze. If you’re trying to stay healthy, here’s the nutritional information at a glance:
When I made this recipe, I cut the loaf into about 10 slices, and the nutritional information reflects that. If you cut your bread into smaller or larger slices, your calories per serving will vary. Keep this in mind if you keep track of your calories.
Did You Try It?
Sourdough discard cinnamon bread has become one of my favorites (I know I have a lot of favorites – they’re all my favorites or they wouldn’t be here on my blog). But I’d love it if my recipe became one of your favorites, too. If you tried my recipe, feel free to leave a star rating or comment in the comment section below.
Super good recipe! It was really simple to follow and it tastes amazing! Now all my sourdough starter discard doesn’t have to go to waste.
YAY! Thank you so much. I’m so glad you enjoyed it 😀
Greetings from Indonesia! As a novice baker, I am very pleased with this recipe. It tasted divine! And quickly consumed my built-up sourdough discharge XD I made it less sweet by subtracting 10% of the sugar.
However, my bread wasn’t uniformly raised as it created a dome in the middle. I wonder if it’s because my oven isn’t hot enough?
Hey there! That’s a good question with a lot of potential variables, so it’s tough to give you one specific answer.
Sometimes with quick breads, gas gets trapped in the middle and that creates a large hole that could create the dome effect you’ve mentioned. When that dome gets too big, the bubble bursts and collapses resulting in a loaf with a sunken middle. Overmixing with a mixer can create this effect. When mixing, you want to make sure all the dry ingredients are properly stirred and all the wet ingredients are stirred separately, and then hand mix them together until just combined. A few lumps in the batter are okay.
Another possible reason could be the shape of your pan. I have a plain bread pan and a decorative bread pan, and the decorative bread pan has ridged edges that affect how my bread rises in the middle. If your pan doesn’t have an even shape, your bread might rise unevenly too.
I doubt that a lower oven temperature would cause a dome in the middle, though it could result in a loaf that takes longer to bake. If you’re worried about your oven temperature, consider investing in a separate oven thermometer to check your temperatures because ovens can vary quite a bit.
Good luck with your next loaf. I hope this helps a little.
Thanks a lot for the pointers!!
I found out the problem: with my 1st loaf, I overmixed it and didn’t put it straight to the oven after I mixed and put it in the pan (my oven wasn’t hot enough so I warmed it longer). Now my loaves came out perfect everytime ❤️❤️❤️
That’s so wonderful! I’m so happy you enjoy this recipe 🙂
This bread is absolutely amazing I ate almost the whole loaf myself. It’s so moist and flavorful and crust has a perfect little crunch. Making more today.
That’s wonderful, Lisa! I’m so happy for you. Thank you so much for the kind words.
Have you ever added raisins to turn it into cinnamon raisins bread?
I have not, but that is an excellent suggestion. I bet it’s delicious.
Loaf was great-more than I hoped for! I used discard and will be looking for more. Extra loaves will go in the freezer.
Yay! Thank you so much.
Can this be made in a bread machine?
I’m not sure. I don’t own a bread machine, and bread machines vary in size and capacity. Some bread machines have different settings for quick breads and sweet breads, so you’ll want to understand your machine settings before attempting this recipe. I did a quick Google and it seems like a sweet quick bread setting might be your best bet? If you do try it, let me know how it turns out.
I would not use a bread machine for this recipe. The machine will overmix the dough.
I haven’t tried this yet, but have you had luck freezing the loaf for later?
I haven’t tried freezing the loaf, but I can see it freezing pretty well. If you do freeze it, let me know how it goes?
I slice it, and place parchment paper between the slices before freezing so I can just take out individual slices to toast. It works great!
Oh that’s awesome! Thank you for letting us know. That’s super helpful.
This bread is so so delicious, thank you so much for sharing! I especially appreciate how you put both the volume and weight measurements in the recipe. Having the bowl on the scale and using that to weigh each ingredient right in made it super easy to both put together and clean up. I only had coconut sugar available and it gave the bread an almost molasses flavor. So so tasty, thanks again for sharing this recipe with us.
Oh that’s so wonderful to hear! Thank you so much for your kind words and feedback. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
Yes, I also really appreciated the measurements in grams! Saved so much time and measuring instruments! I used cream cheese icing and served it as dessert.
Cream cheese icing sounds divine! Thank you.
So light and moist. Love this recipe!
Thank you so much! I appreciate the feedback 🙂
This bread wasn’t even completely cooled before my husband got into it lol. Smelled good baking, tasted even better when done.
Wonderful! Thank you so much for the positive feedback 😀
I can’t wait to try this – I’m sure my family will devour it! One question – could I substitute honey for the sugar, do you think?
That’s a good question, and I’m not entirely sure because I haven’t tried the swap myself. Honey isn’t a dry ingredient like sugar, so it would change the dough consistency. You might need to add a smidge more flour as a result, and the rise time might change as well.
This recipe is fantastic. I am actually vegan and my substitutions were 1:1, country crock brand vegan butter and a flax egg.
This bread turned out incredible! I had fed my starter in the morning and baked this after work, so it was fairly active.
This recipe is Soo similar to Amish Friendship Bread (which I have wanted to recreate as a vegan for years). Can’t believe I found the perfect recipe! Thank you
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that. Thank you so much.
Yummy! I baked it yesterday and it’s almost gone!
Wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing.
I’ve made this bread several times now and it’s a big hit Everytime! The little crunch on the crust is amazing. I would maintain a sourdough starter just to be able to make this! I’ve made it ahead and frozen it and it tasted great after thawing and toasting.
Yay! Thank you for your kind feedback. You are very kind. I’m so glad to hear about your positive experience.
Could this dough be refrigerated overnight??
Hey Kate, I’m sorry but this is a quick bread. It needs to be baked immediately after mixing because of the leavening ingredients. Fortunately, it only takes a few minutes to stir everything together.
This bread is delicious! I’ve made it twice now. First time as written without the glaze. The second time I followed the recipe as written but made the addition of two small Granny Smith apples diced. Even without the glaze it is so good. Kind of reminds me of the taste of an apple fritter but a little healthier.
Oh apple sounds like a lovely addition. Thank you so much for sharing!
Help, I like the flavor however, mine came out really dry. What suggestions do you have to resolve this issue?
I’m glad you liked it! I’m sorry the bread was dry – it could be any number of reasons. Over mixing, for example, develops the gluten too much and makes the dough stiffer. Measuring by volume instead of weight could result in too much flour that could make it dry. Over baking could also dry out your bread. Expired baking powder could also contribute to the problem. If you’re still struggling after fixing these issues, maybe consider adding more fat to the recipe? You could potentially use shortening instead of butter, though I haven’t tried the swap myself.