Cranberry Crumb Sourdough Coffee Cake

This moist, buttery Cranberry Crumb Sourdough Coffee Cake - filled with fresh cranberries and double layer of rich, walnut-crumb topping - is perfect for a relaxing weekend morning or afternoon snack.

Jump to:

• What the Story Behind this Recipe?
• What Goes into this Recipe
• How to Make this Coffee Cake
• FAQs & Expert Tips
• Sourdough Recipes
• Cranberry Crumb Sourdough Coffee Cake

If you've not yet jumped on the Sourdough Train, this Cranberry Crumb Sourdough Coffee Cake might just be the thing that punches your ticket! 

This sourdough coffee cake recipe is an excellent way to use up extra sourdough starter. It’s easy to make, tastes amazing, and is perfect for any occasion when you want a little something sweet.

What the Story Behind this Recipe?

My mom use to mix up a coffee cake on Sunday mornings once or twice a month. It took nearly an hour to bake, and in that time, our house would fill with the scents of roasting walnuts, caramelizing brown sugar, and warm vanilla cake.

There were only two things wrong with Mama's coffee cake: it took way too long to bake, and there was never enough of that sweet, nutty, crumb topping! 

I can’t change the baking time problem – it’s still going to take almost an hour to bake. But I’ve definitely resolved the crumb dilemma!

What Goes into this Recipe

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

• Sourdough Starter: Use Unfed Starter or Discard for this recipe. (See FAQs for more.)

• Cranberries: Use fresh or frozen whole cranberries. Allow frozen cranberries to thaw completely before adding them to the batter.

No cranberries? No problem! You can substitute in any berry you want (blueberries work especially well!) or leave the berries out altogether. Any way you make it, it's going to be delicious! 

Walnuts: You can substitute pecans, almonds, or hazelnuts.

I usually chop nuts for recipes by hand, but for this recipe, you want them a little finer. I use a small food processor for this step, processing the nuts a handful at a time, pulsing quickly a few times with each batch.

How to Make this Coffee Cake

Preheat oven to 350°F | 176°C.

Grease a 9" square pan, or spray with cooking spray.

Chop the Nuts

I usually chop nuts for recipes by hand, but for this recipe, you want them a little finer. I use a small food processor for this step, processing the nuts a handful at a time, pulsing quickly a few times with each batch.

You want most of the walnuts to be finely chopped, but you don't want to make nut butter. It's good to have a few bigger pieces here and there. It gives the Crumb Topping a more interesting texture, too.

Make the Crumb Topping

NOTE: This recipe makes double the amount of crumb traditionally used. (If you prefer your coffee cake with less crumb topping, it’s an easy fix: just make less of the topping.) 

In a medium bowl, whisk together nuts, brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour, cinnamon, and salt.

Add vanilla and melted butter and mix until thoroughly combined. Set aside.

Make the Cake Batter

You can use a hand mixer if you want, but I prefer mixing this cake entirely by hand. Either way, it will take you about 15 minutes to get it in the oven.

In a large mixing bowl, use a wooden spoon to break down butter.

It is critical that the butter be at least 65°F | 18°C or it will be too hard to mix the cake. Optimally, butter should be about 70°-72°F.

In a large mixing bowl, use a spatula to combine sugar and butter. It doesn't need to be pretty; just mix it in thoroughly.

Add eggs to butter and sugar mixture one at a time, stirring thoroughly to combine after each addition.

Stir in vanilla and sourdough starter. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk or sift together 2 cups of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add dry ingredients to Starter mixture and stir to combine. Add milk and mix until smooth.

Stir in orange zest and cranberries.

Assemble the Coffee Cake

Assembling the coffee cake is easy, but Step C does takes just a bit of patience. 

(A) Spread one-half cake batter in the bottom of a prepared pan.

(B) Sprinkle one-half crumble mixture over the top. Press the crumble down very lightly with your hands.

(C) CAREFULLY distribute the rest of the batter on top of the first crumb layer. The idea is to mix in as little of the crumb mixture into the cake batter as possible.

I do this by dropping dollops of batter over the top of the crumb layer, and then carefully spreading it to the edges using a frosting spatula or the back of a spoon.

(D) Sprinkle the second half of the crumble mixture over the top. Press the crumble down very lightly with your hands.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes.

Open the oven door and gently cover the cake top with a piece of foil. Basically, just lay the foil over the top. This will keep the topping from over browning during the final minutes of baking.

Close the oven and continue baking for an additional 10-20 minutes (for a total of 45-55 minutes cooking time), or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on rack.

FAQs & Expert Tips

Stages of a Healthy Sourdough Starter

Use Unfed Starter or Discard for this recipe. 

• Fed Starter – Fed Starter is active, healthy starter that has been fed within about 2 hours. By hour 2, it will be producing little bubbles on the surface. 
• Active Starter – Starter is Active about 5 hours after feeding. By hour 5, you should be able to watch large bubbles actively rising through the Starter and making their way to surface.
• Ripe Starter – Starter is considered Ripe about 8 hours after feeding. The volume has doubled, and the top is just beginning to show signs of sagging under its own weight. 
• Unfed Starter – Unfed Starter is healthy, vigorous Starter that has not been fed for 12 hours or more. By hour 12, it collapsed after Ripening, and is ready to be fed again or put in the fridge until next time. (Note that this is NOT neglected Starter that hasn’t been fed in days.)
• Discard – Sourdough discard is the portion of your sourdough starter that you get rid of when you do a feeding. It should be healthy and vigorous, with some small bubbling activity.

Sourdough Recipes

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