How to Make Brown Butter Apple Sourdough Coffee Cake

Apple Sourdough Coffee Cake is the perfect sweet snack to make this time of year. It is incredibly easy to make, super moist and not too sweet. The perfect treat with a hot cup of coffee!

There is just something about the cooler weather that makes you crave a hot drink and a cozy sweet treat. Coffee Cake is the perfect thing to fill that craving! If you have never had or made coffee cake, it does not in fact have coffee in it. It is simply the term used to describe this style of a lighter, snacking cake made to enjoy throughout the day opposed to as dessert.

This Apple Sourdough Coffee Cake is such a simple recipe to make, using your sourdough discard! It starts with a moist and tender brown butter spiced cake batter, with just the right amount of sweetness and spice. Then, fresh apple chunks are folded into the batter. You spread it into any shape baking dish you like and top it with a buttery, brown sugar oat crumble and a light glaze. It doesn’t get any more perfect than this!

Make this coffee cake to enjoy as a sweet snack for breakfast or with coffee for an afternoon pick up. Serve it for a holiday brunch or with afternoon tea. No matter where or when you serve this Apple Sourdough Coffee Cake, it will be enjoyed by all.

Tips for Making Apple Sourdough Coffee Cake

1. Use sourdough discard that has been in your fridge for no longer than a month. If it sits in your fridge for too long before using, it does tend to get a strong “off” flavour that can come through in your baked goods.
2. Make sure your ingredients like your discard, apple sauce and eggs are room temperature. You don’t want cool ingredients. making the brown butter clump up in your batter.
3. When mixing the coffee cake batter, ensure you don’t over mix it. You just want to gently mix the dough until there are no dry flour spots remaining. Over mixing the batter can lead to air pockets, and a tougher cake.

Brown Butter Apple Sourdough Coffee Cake Ingredients

Brown Butter– This is made by simply heating butter on the stove until it becomes a rich golden brown color. Salted or unsalted butter is fine.

Apple Sauce– You want to use an unsweetened apple sauce in this cake.

Eggs– A couple room temperature eggs add the perfect texture.

Sourdough Discard– This is the extra sourdough starter you get when you feed your starter, that is no longer active.

Sugar– You want brown sugar and white sugar in this recipe for texture and a rich flavour.

Flour– All purpose flour is all you need.

Spices– Cinnamon and nutmeg give the perfect amount of warm spice to this coffee cake.

Oats– I love adding rolled oats to the crumble topping for a slightly nutty, and earthy flavour.

Baking Powder– Because this recipe uses inactive sourdough discard, baking powder is needed to help the cake rise.

Apple– You can use almost any type of apple you like. I love using a sweet but firm apple like ambrosia or pink lady.

Icing Sugar– This is just used in creating a light glaze to drizzle over top of the cake.

The Steps

1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease and line an 8inch square or round baking dish with parchment.
2. Start by making the brown butter. Add the 1/2 cup of butter to a small pot and melt over medium heat. Allow it to melt, then get really foamy. Once all of that foam disapears you are left with a golden brown butter. Remove from the heat and set it aside to cool for 10 minutes.
3. While that cools, make the crumble. Add all of the crumble toppings to a bowl and stir together until you get a nice clumpy mixture.
4. Next, whisk together the apple sauce, sourdough discard, eggs, vanilla, both sugars and the cooled brown butter in a large bowl.
5. Then add the 1 1/2 cups flour, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, salt, and baking powder to the wet mixture and fold together just until no dry spots remain.
6. Finally, gently fold in the apple pieces.
7. Spread the batter in the prepared pan, then top with the crumble mixture.
8. Bake the coffee cake for about 55 minutes or until golden and the middle feels set when you touch it.
9. Once golden, remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for 10-20 minutes.
10. Then, stir together the milk and icing sugar until you get a glaz like consistency. Drizzle it evenly over top of the cake, slice and enjoy!

If you give this recipe a try, leave a comment or recipe review below!

Looking for more delicious sourdough baking to try?

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https://cmbarndominium.com/fall-pumpkin-sourdough-coffee-cake/