Sticky Bun Sourdough Coffee Cake (Using Sourdough Discard)
Here’s a delicious – and easy – way to use up your discard when feeding your sourdough starter – make a moist sticky bun sourdough coffee cake with a caramel pecan topping for breakfast, snacking, or dessert!
If you’re looking for more discard recipes, be sure to check out this amazing list of 35 sourdough discard recipes!
✩ What readers are saying…
“I just made this delicious Sticky Coffee Cake. Quick, simple recipe using all of my sourdough, it was great!” – Donna L.
This recipe for a sourdough discard coffee cake is SO good, giving all the flavors of your favorite sticky bun rolls without all the work.
We love this for breakfast, as well as a fun sourdough dessert served with whipped cream (because why not?).
It doesn’t take long after creating a sourdough starter to realize you can only make so much bread. Even if it’s a delicious sourdough artisan bread or chewy rolls with a fun topping.
If you keep the starter on the counter for awhile to strengthen it or you’re waking up a starter that’s been stored in the fridge, you will have what’s called “discard,” the amount you remove from the starter before feeding it again.
This discard is not strong enough to make a risen bread, or it may be too little for a recipe, or you’ve already got a freezer full of bread.
That’s where recipes like this sourdough discard coffee cake (and also these delicious crackers, english muffins, and waffles that all use discard) come in handy.
Because if it’s one thing we don’t want, it’s to actually throw away the discard, no matter the name – we’ve worked hard for it, right?
What exactly is sourdough discard?
I wish it were called something else because while you do have to remove at least half or more of your starter before feeding again to keep the yeast active and growing, it’s perfectly good to use in other recipes.
The term discard simply refers to the portion you remove – hopefully to use in something else and not just toss.
Note: This is different than when you’re making your starter from scratch – during that week you do need to dispose of the starter you remove, as it’s not finished enough to eat until the end of the process.
If you’re keeping your starter at room temperature for awhile and feeding once or twice a day, you will have to remove all but 1/2 cup or so before feeding again, which will leave you with a cup or more (depending on how much you’ve fed) of discard.
And even if you’re reawakening a refrigerated starter, you may need to feed 2-4 times before using in bread, creating a cup or two of discard.
So keep your discard in a container in the fridge and when you have enough to make a recipe, try this yummy coffee cake!
Ingredients
For this recipe you can use your sourdough starter in pretty much any state: just fed, fed the day before – or some you removed and put in the fridge for a day until you had time to deal with it.
In addition to sourdough starter you’ll need basic pantry items for making a cake:
- butter
- brown sugar
- honey
- pecans (or walnuts)
- egg
- whole wheat pastry flour (unbleached all purpose will work as well)
- sugar
- salt and baking soda
How to Make Sticky Bun Sourdough Coffee Cake
Step 1: Make the simple caramel nut topping by melting butter and sugar together with a bit of honey and spreading it in a buttered dish before topping with chopped nuts.
What size pan and type of pan do I use?
So, I really had to experiment with this to get the right amount of topping that wouldn’t overflow onto the bottom of the oven (yep, I took one for the team and needed to clean my oven!).
Here are three types of pans you can use with the pros & cons of each:
- Deep dish pie plate. This is my preferred pan, as it’s round to fit on a platter and deep enough not to overflow. However, the sides are sloped for pies and it will need to be cut in triangles, so if you don’t want that, try one of the following.
- 8×8 square baking pan. This pan will give you the square sides, ability to cut into squares, and is also deep enough to keep most of the topping in. It’s harder to find a platter big enough to turn it out onto and so is more difficult to flip (square peg into a round hole kind of thing?)
- 9-inch cake pan. It’s round again so able to fit on a plate, but this would be my last resort, as you will probably get more of topping overflow.
I still hedge my bets with all of them by placing a large cookie sheet on the lowest rack under the cake to catch any drips.
Step 2: After the caramel layer is in your pan, you simply mix up the batter add it to the pan, layering on top of the caramel and nuts.
You can see above that the baking soda is already working, so you’ll want to work as quickly as you can to get it in the oven.
TIP: spoon the batter evenly over the caramel layer and then use a spatula to spread evenly. That way you won’t be fighting the butter-sugar mixture as much as you spread.
Step 3: Bake the coffee cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean to make sure the center is done. Then place the baked cake onto a cooling rack for a few minutes to settle.
Step 4: Flip the cake out onto a serving plate. Flipping sticky bun anything always makes me a bit nervous, but this turns out easily! Just be sure to have a pair of good hot pads and a plate big enough to hold the cake and overflow of caramel.
TIP: After flipping, use a spatula to scrape any caramel and nuts that remained in the pan back onto the cake. We don’t want to miss any of that goodness.
Sourdough Coffee Cake Storage
This cake is really best the day it’s made, like most caramel-pecan upside down cakes and buns.
But I have found that it freezes well when cut it into pieces and frozen between pieces of parchment paper. It will last 3-6 months this way.
To use frozen coffee cake, let it defrost in the fridge overnight and then sit out on the counter the next day until you’d like to serve it for breakfast, brunch or tea.
We’ve also found that for a single piece, 20 seconds in the microwave works great, too.
Of course, that is if there’s anything left after serving this yummy sticky bun sourdough coffee cake!
More Sourdough Recipes
- Artisan Sourdough Rolls (with Everything Bagel Topping)
- Easy Sourdough Artisan Bread Recipe (Ready in 1 Day)
- Amazing Whole Wheat Sourdough Waffles Recipe
- Cheesy Sourdough Batter Bread Recipe
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Easy Sticky Bun Sourdough Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Caramel Pecan Topping:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Cake:
- 1 cup sourdough starter
- 1/3 cup melted butter or oil
- 1 egg
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached all purpose flour
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
Make Caramel Pecan Topping:
- Butter a 9-inch deep dish pie plate, 9×9 inch square pan, or 9-inch cake pan* and heat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm 1/2 cup butter, brown sugar, and honey just until the butter is melted (do not let boil). Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle with nuts. Set pan aside while making cake batter.
Make Cake:
- Add starter, melted butter or oil, and egg to a large mixing bowl and stir well. Add remaining ingredients, stirring just until combined.
- Spoon dollops of batter over the caramel nut topping in the pan and then use a spatula to smooth it evenly.
- Bake coffee cake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with just a few crumbs and topping is bubbling on sides. Let cool on a rack for 5 minutes.
- Loosen edges of cake with a knife and invert a large platter over the cake. Using hot pads, grasp edges of cake pan and flip over. Remove pan and spoon any topping in pan back onto cake.
- Let cool 5-10 minutes before serving.**
Absolutely delicious! Gooey and packed with delicious flavor. Doesn’t keep well, needs to eaten day of or frozen.
Glad you liked this! Agree about keeping well – it’s noted on the recipe card, too.
I have cake flour I need to use. Would that work in this recipe? Can’t wait to try this ❤️
I haven’t tested that, Brittany, but I do know that there are recipes for cinnamon rolls that use cake flour, so I think it may work.
I just made this delicious Sticky Coffee Cake. Quick, simple recipe using alil of my sourdough, it was great!
Wonderful – so glad you enjoyed this! Thanks so much for the review. 🙂
Has anyone tried fermenting the batter overnight?
Because of the baking soda I don’t think it would work for fermenting the whole recipe. If you’d like your flour soaked more, I’d do just that with the sourdough starter discard overnight and then proceed with the recipe.
Hi! Can I slow ferment this cake overnight?
Because of the baking soda I don’t think it would work for fermenting the whole recipe. If you’d like your flour soaked more, I’d do just that with the sourdough starter discard overnight and then proceed with the recipe.
Just made this and it’s so delicious! Sticky, flavorful and the texture is perfection!
Oh, I’m so glad you make this and left such a great review, Heather! It’s one of my favs and I always hope it gets some more love. 🙂
I haven’t made this yet, but I can’t wait to try it! Where did you buy the lovely serving platter?
I hope you enjoy it, Margaret! That platter is vintage that I’ve had for years. 🙂
Just made this and it is AMAZING!!!
I’m so glad!! Thank you for reviewing!
I made this in a 10 inch pie plate and baked it for 35 minutes. I probably should have baked it longer, but had no problem with spills. 🙌
I didn’t enjoy the honey flavor in the topping and will omit it next time. Applesauce worked well as an oil substitution.
Thanks for the review and your changes, Kirsten.
This recipe has quickly become a favorite in our home! I find the cake to be quite simple to make yet difficult to resist. Occasionally, my daughter and I have added sliced apple on top of the caramel between “Make Cake” steps 1 and 2. No alterations are necessary for the Carmel apple combination to work successfully. The cake is delicious with or without apples. Although I am not usually a fan of walnuts, I actually prefer them in this recipe. Their strong, bitter flavor counteracts the very sweet caramel nicely.
Oh, I’m so glad Kris – and adding the apple sounds like a lovely addition!
Thanks so much for the review.
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
It keeps for a few days at room temperature and freezes well for a few months (I cut into pieces first so it’s easy to pull one out when I want).
This looks so good! What a fun way to use sourdough! Is there a way to make it gluten free?
It is really a fun way to use the sourdough, Suzanne!
To make gluten free, you’d need to use a 1:1 flour replacement that you know works similar to flour.
Unfortunately not my favourite recipe. The centre wouldn’t cook despite following the instructions exactly, including the pan size, and cooking for longer. It’s also extremely sweet. The ratio of sugary topping to cake left us feel quite sick.
Sorry to hear that, Deb – it’s one of our special treats we enjoy!
I had the same exact problem! It looked delicious and I realized it wasn’t butter puddled in the middle but uncooked batter. I just flipped it into a bigger pan and am now cooking it longer. We’ll see if the center changes.
Did you use the toothpick test? You should see crumbs clinging as stated in the recipe. If not, cook longer before unmolding.
Turned out perfectly!!
Yay! Thanks for the review!!
My family loved this recipe! I love a good sourdough recipe. Thank you!
I’m so glad you tried this, Jessica – it’s one I hope a lot of people try as it a fun way to use sourdough, I think. 🙂
I don’t have any sourdough start (yet), so was wondering what I could substitute to make the coffee cake without it? It just looks so yummy!
Well, I created the recipe after seeing this recipe (though I changed how the topping was made and the cake to be sourdough, so I’ve actually never made it, ha!): https://www.thekitchn.com/sticky-bun-sour-cream-coffee-cake-recipe-23012469
You could try that! Though I really would use my easy technique for the topping vs. their boiling (or using the cream – just not needed in my opinion).
I used the cast iron skillet. It came out beautifully, but had still overflowed a bit onto the cookie sheet. Ah well. Tasted amazing and was a big hit!! I’ll probably try a lighter option next time! 🙂
Okay – good to know that worked. Sometimes I get overflow and sometimes I don’t. 🙂
This sounds delicious and just the thing for breakfast tomorrow to celebrate my husband’s birthday! I was wondering if you’d tried a 10” cast iron skillet. That’s my plan for tomorrow, anyhow. I’ll let you know how it works out!
I didn’t, since it’s so heavy to flip it. If that’s not an issue, I think it would work great. Let me know how it turned out!