Simple Sourdough Discard Coffee Cake [with cinnamon pecan streusel topping]
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This simple sourdough discard coffee cake with cinnamon pecan streusel topping is the perfect accompaniment for your morning coffee. But it's sophisticated enough to serve for dessert at your next dinner party.
It's a sourdough coffee cake all rounder! You'll love it's simplicity ... but you can also jazz it up with a few variations too (I've got those listed at the end of the post).
A great way to use up 150g of leftover sourdough starter (discard), this mouth watering sourdough coffee cake will become a regular in your oven, along with your sourdough bread. It's definitely one of my favorite ways to use up my sourdough discard.
I've chosen to make this sourdough discard coffee cake in a square baking pan, but you can use whatever pan you like (I've included pan measurements in the recipe card). It also looks lovely in a bundt pan, just like this sourdough discard monkey bread.
And if you love making sourdough discard recipes, you need to check out this sourdough discard apple cake, sourdough strawberry cake, sourdough discard applesauce cake, this sourdough discard banana bread and these sourdough lemon muffins. And you'll find 70+ sourdough discard recipes here.
What Is Sourdough Discard?
Sourdough starter discard is the unfed portion of your starter that you remove before you feed it and refresh it for baking sourdough bread.
It's fantastic to use in baked goods, like cakes, cookies and crackers because of the depth of flavor it brings.
Sourdough discard works really well in this cake because it gives it a lovely tangy flavor, as well as a more moist cake crumb.
I highly recommend not using old sourdough discard though, or you will end up with an unpleasant sour flavor in your cake.
How To Make Sourdough Discard Coffee Cake
This simple sourdough discard coffee cake recipe is really easy to pull together. It's super quick to mix and pour into a pan and you don't really need anything too high tech to achieve a great end result.
I like to prepare the crumb topping first and then mix the cake batter so that it's easy to assemble. It's such a great way to use extra starter!
Preheat the oven to 338F/170C.
Make the streusel first:
- Combine chopped pecans, white and brown sugar, melted butter, cinnamon and salt in a mixing bowl and mix until well combined. The pecans and sugar should be well coated with the melted butter and cinnamon (I love getting my kids to help with this bit).
- Set aside while you make the cake.
Make the sourdough discard coffee cake:
- Cream the butter and sugar together (a stand mixer or hand mixer on medium speed is handy for this step). They should be light, fluffy and pale in color.
- Now add the sourdough starter, eggs and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar and mix until well combined. Set aside while you assemble the dry ingredients.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the all purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until well combined.
- Now, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 to 4 small batches, folding them in gently. The cake mixture will resemble really thick pancake batter.
- Take a cake pan that has been well greased with plenty of butter. Pour half of the cake batter into the pan.
- Top the cake batter with half of the streusel topping and then add the remaining cake batter.
- Top the cake with the remainder of the pecan and cinnamon streusel mixture. Don't worry if the streusel mix doesn't go all the way to the edge of the cake, the cake will fill in the gaps and rise up around the topping.
- Bake the cake in the oven at 338F/170C for around 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool in the tin for around 10 to 15 minutes. You can then pop it onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Can You Ferment Sourdough Coffee Cake Overnight?
While this is a sourdough discard recipe, if you are wanting to ferment the cake batter overnight, I suggest adding sourdough discard, sugar, flour and buttermilk together and fermenting that at room temperature overnight. Then the next morning, add the eggs, vanilla extract, salt and baking powder. This will ensure your cake still has some lift and the baking powder works.
This is a similar method to making overnight sourdough waffles and overnight sourdough blueberry muffins. This overnight method will result in a very moist cake.
Recipe Variations
The great thing about this simple sourdough discard coffee cake is that you can add some flavor variations to mix things up a little! Here are some suggestions to create some different flavors from this one sourdough discard cake mix.
- For a sourdough blueberry coffee cake, add 150g of frozen or fresh blueberries to the first layer of the cake for all the blueberry goodness. You still want to use the pecan cinnamon filling, because blueberries and cinnamon are a match made in heaven!
- For a citrus sourdough coffee cake, add the zest of one or two lemons or oranges to the cake batter.
- You can use different nuts if you'd prefer - almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts all work really well in this sourdough coffee cake recipe.
- I have used buttermilk in this recipe (because I always have some leftover from making my own butter), but if you don't have buttermilk you can use 90g whole milk with 10g of white vinegar added. This will give you a buttermilk alternative that adds a good depth of flavor. If you don't have vinegar, just use the whole milk as is.
- If you're using almonds instead of pecans, you might like to swap out the vanilla extract with almond extract.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sourdough discard can be added to lots of different baked goods, from breads, cakes, muffins, biscuits and cookies. Adding sourdough discard to baked goods gives them a deeper flavor and adds some fermented goodness. You can add sourdough discard to almost any recipe you like.
While you only need to discard around 50g of starter before each refresh of your starter, it does add up if you're doing this twice a day. Recipes that use lots of sourdough discard include sourdough discard pizza, sourdough crackers and sourdough muffins.
You should wait until your sourdough starter is at least 7 days old before you use the discard. Discard should be stored in the fridge, rather than at room temperature, where it can mold. Discard stored in the fridge will continue to get more sour and should be used within a few weeks.
Sourdough Coffee Cake (with cinnamon pecan crumble topping)
Equipment
- Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer
- Square Cake Pan (23 x 23 cm or 9 x 9 inches)
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 100 g Butter
- 100 g Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 150 g Sourdough Starter
- 5 g Vanilla Extract (1 tsp)
- 100 g Buttermilk (or whole milk)
- 200 g All Purpose Flour
- 5 g Salt
- 10 g Baking Powder
Streusel Topping
- 150 g Pecans (chopped)
- 50 g Granulated Sugar
- 50 g Brown Sugar
- 3 g Cinnamon (2 tsp)
- 50 g Melted Butter
- 2 g Salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 338F/170C.
Make the streusel first:
- Combine chopped pecans, white and brown sugar, melted butter, cinnamon and salt in a mixing bowl and mix until well combined. The pecans and sugar should be well coated with the melted butter and cinnamon.Set aside while you make the cake.
Make the cake:
- Cream the butter and sugar together (a stand mixer or hand mixer is handy for this step). They should be light, fluffy and pale in color.
- Now add the sourdough starter, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla to the butter and sugar and mix until well combined. Set aside while you assemble the dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until well combined.
- Now, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 to 4 small batches, folding them in gently.
- Take a cake pan that has been well greased with plenty of butter. Pour half of the cake batter into the pan.
- Top the cake batter with half of the streusel topping and then add the remainder of the cake batter.
- Top the cake with the remainder of the pecan and cinnamon streusel mixture. Don't worry if it doesn't completely cover the top, the cake will fill in the gaps.
- Bake the cake in the oven at 338F/170C for around 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean (I have baked this in a fan forced oven - just don't make the oven too hot or the topping on the cake will burn).
- Allow the cake to cool in the tin for around 10 to 15 minutes. You can then pop it onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
