Delicious apple cinnamon breakfast goodness!
Each day that you feed your starter you have to discard some of your perfectly good, hard earned yeast. Why not use these discards to better humanity instead? That is just what I set out to do by making Apple Sourdough Coffee Cake. Yeah for baking and saving the world!
Using sourdough requires planning in advance, as you make the dough the day before, then bake the following morning. That has always seemed like a lot of planning, but my sourdough starter called me to action. I found that it actually worked out really well. I am now calling this the lazy bake, since you make the dough the day before, it actually feels so much quicker to make. So grab your rolling pins and forge on!
Sourdough bread is process intensive. The goal for this recipe was to give you something SIMPLE and DELCIOUS to make with your sourdough starter. I am breaking this recipe down into sign-posted, easy to follow steps…and it IS easy.
THE DAY BEFORE BAKING – Make the dough
I have made this recipe as simple as possible by using a gluten-free flour blend to reduce the number of steps and ingredients. If you are sensitive to xantham gum you will want to make your own blend. You can use this Gluten-Free Blend recipe for a substitute.
You will need a gluten-free starter to make this recipe. If you do not have a starter you will need to make one, which will take one week, so you had better get started now! A starter is simple to make, but requires daily maintenance for the first several days. Follow this easy, step-by-step process.
Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter Recipe
The dough recipe really could not be any simpler. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and cover it. You don’t even have to put it in the fridge. Super, super simple. If it is cool in your house you might just put the covered dough into the unheated oven to help insulate it a bit.
THE DAY OF BAKING – Make the filling and bake!
Prep! First you will make the filling. Peel up three pounds of apples, which is about 6 medium sized.
I have sliced mine into slim little wedges because I think the shape is pretty. If you find it easier to do little cubes, that is fine, too. Start the cook-top at medium high to brown the butter lightly, then add your remaining ingredients. Once the ingredients are cooking down well, go ahead and lower the temperature to a simmer and continue cooking for about 30 minutes. The pectin in the apples will start to thicken the juices. You are looking for a syrupy consistency. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Go ahead and heat up your oven and grease a 9″x13″ glass casserole dish. Your dough should have about doubled in size over night. If you find it to be a little soft and not firm enough, feel free to add a little more blend flour to the dough to help firm it up. Knead the dough for a couple of minutes, then pat flour across the surface of the dough ball. Transfer the dough into a prepared casserole dish. Press the dough into the pan, filling the corners and creating a fairly uniform thickness.
With a slotted spoon, dish the apple filling evenly across the top of the dough. Reserve any extra juices as a sauce to pour on top when serving. With a knife, cut a grid through the dough with the goal of jumbling up chunks of dough with the apples. If it looks like a mess it is perfect.
Bake! 375 degrees for around 30 minutes, though every oven varies. Look for a light golden brown. Gluten-free flour does not brown exactly the same, so don’t worry if it does not get more golden. Check with a fork to confirm that it is not doughy in the center.
Allow to cool a bit, it will be molten hot. I topped mine with the remaining apple syrup and a pat of salted butter (my friends will tell you how much I love butter!) Some people like to glaze their cinnamon rolls and cakes, so feel free to make an easy glaze for this to drizzle over the top. You will find the recipe for this in the notes below.
Voila! You just made a delicious breakfast and the world is a better place already!
Let me know how this recipe worked out for you!
Lazy-Bake Gluten-Free Apple Sourdough Coffee Cake
Equipment
- Dutch oven or Skillet
- 9x13 pan
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 cups Gluten-free Flour
- 1/2 cup Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter See instructions in post
- 1 cup Whole Milk
- 1 Egg
- 5 Tbsp Coconut Oil or Butter melted
- 2 Tbsp Coconut Sugar or Sucanat
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon ground
- 1/2 tsp Salt
Apple Filling
- 3 lbs Apples (Granny Smith or other baking apple) sliced in slim wedges
- 1/2 cup Butter
- 3/4 cup Coconut Sugar or Sucanat
- 1 Tbsp Cinnamon ground
- 1 tsp Sea Salt fine ground
- 1/2 tsp Nutmeg ground
- 1/8 tsp Cloves ground
Instructions
Day Before Baking
- In a medium bowl mix milk, egg, vanilla and coconut oil or butter with your gluten-free sourdough starter.
- In a medium bowl blend your dry ingredients, gluten-free flour, baking soda, salt and coconut sugar until well combined.
- Slowly add your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients, blending until smooth. Knead that dough for two to three additional minutes.
- Cover tightly with a snug lid or plastic wrap and allow it to proof overnight on the counter at room temperature.
Day of Baking
Apple Filling
- In a medium-sized (5-6 quart) Dutch oven or skillet with lid, lightly brown the butter at medium-high. This should take just a couple of minutes. Add sugar, butter, cinnamon and sea salt and stir, then add the sliced apples.
- Cover and cook down for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring often. The goal is to have the liquids thicken to a syrup consistency. Remove from heat and add Vanilla. Allow to cool a bit, where it will continue to thicken
Dough
- Grease and 9x13 glass casserole pan. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Roll out a sheet of parchment and dust with gluten-free flour or rice flour. Move the dough to the floured parchment sheet. Knead the dough for a couple of minutes and add flour as needed to firm it up.
- Add dough to the casserole dish and lightly press to fill the bottom of the pan. Spoon apple filling on top of the dough in the casserole dish, minimizing the liquid. Take a knife and cut through the apples and dough in a grid pattern along the entire pan. The goal is to mix up the topping and the with chunks of dough.
- Cook in preheated oven for approximately 30 minutes, until lightly golden brown.
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