Whole Grain Sourdough Coffee Cake
I'm not sure where exactly to place this: the crumb of this is definitely cake like, not bready so maybe the more sweets/pastry forums? But it is a sourdough recipe, and I don't mean toss some old discard starter but otherwise treat like a quick bread, so sourdough/starters? I don't want to post it as a recipe, because I already wrote up the recipe elsewhere and don't want to do it again. The recipe link has a decent amount of writing, so I don't want to make a new blog post either. After much deliberation, I'm trying the whole grain forum: this is a cake meant for whole grain, ideally fresh milled flours, and I'd just like to share the recipe if there's any interest.
So if anyone is interested, check out my recipe for a sourdough, whole grain coffee cake. This recipe is labor of love, there are easier ways to make a cake! But I really love the flavor: you make a preferment to get a fermented flavor as you would for bread, but then finish it off like a cake, blending in eggs and butter to disrupt the gluten to get a cake crumb. A small amount of osmotolerant yeast is added because I wasn't sure how the sourdough would handle all that sugar and butter, making a microbe-leavened cake. Again, this recipe isn't winning any awards for instant gratification, but I thought I'd share it here anyway: food52.com/recipes/81697-cinnamon-swirl-whole-grain-sourdough-coffee-cake
If this catches the attention of any moderators who have better suggestions of how to file this post, please let me know.
Here's what it looks like sliced
That is a lovely Bundt Stephanie, really nice. Very inventive to make a cake and use sourdough levain to raise it, I like it a lot.
Benny
Thank you! It took a lot of time to get it where I wanted, but I had fun testing it out. Before chemical leavening, cakes all had to be egg or microbe raised - made me appreciate how much of a treat cakes used to be!
Thanks Benny..
Hi Stephanie, that is a great looking cake. I'm going to bookmark your post and give this a go at some point.
But I was wondering :
- I'm not a fan of very sweet cakes. How sweet is it? I'll often cut sugar in recipes to a third or half and barely notice that sweetness is missing; what's the least amount you'd include in the recipe?
- it's hard to tell from the picture you posted if the crumb is more dry, moist, or crumbly, or chewy? How would you describe it?
Thanks. A very interesting cake. I think well worth the effort!
Thanks for posting!
It's sweet enough to be firmly in the cake camp, but I don't think it's too sweet - I don't love having a sugar rush and that empty feeling that comes from eating too sweet, especially after breakfast. But I don't recommend cutting the sugar, at least not the first time, because I already did that! I adapted it from Zingerman's Bakehouse coffee cake, which call for 2c sugar. I cut it down to 1c. I think the ribbons of cinnamon swirl will seem sweeter, and for that you can take down the sugar (Zingerman's calls for 40g, I used 60).
The crumb: I'd say it's a little crumbly but fairly moist. I think how moist the final crumb is can vary a little with the types of grain used though (if using fresh milled grains). But in general I'd say it's not as light and fluffy as a white birthday cake, but it's not chewy like a bread at all.
I'd love to hear your thoughts if you make this! I've only made it at home so I hope it's not actually terrible and I just don't know it.
I'm sure it's good! I'll let you know if/when I bake this at some point! Thanks!!
Thanks for a great recipe! I love making cakes and I've been wanting to make a sourdough-risen one, but there aren't many recipes for them floating around. I didn't use any yeast, and it is probably a little flat because of that, but it's good enough for me. I used chocolate chips instead of nuts and it's very decadent. You'd never know it was all whole wheat (store-brand in my case). Honestly I was a bit surprised it worked, but it's great!