Sourdough Baking - Coffee Cake edition.

I'm completely handling the current situation in the world with distractions.  I'm not going to talk about the marathon I am registered to run, that didn't happen yesterday, but I will run in September.

Lets talk sourdough.  I created a starter because well I needed the square on my stay at home bingo card. I love bread, it's one of my favorite foods, but I can't eat it anymore. I'm allergic to yeast and have gluten sensitivity. Just because I can't eat it, doesn't mean other members of my household can't enjoy it.

The Township of Joe(my son's starter), I don't
have a good picture of the RYD.

Now I have an active starter, well two of them, my oldest son wanted one too. My starter is named The Republic of Yeast Dunstable. I've been researching recipes and while I've made a few loaves of bread, they are still very dense. I've also tried to figure out what to do with the discard sourdough(the stuff you throw away when you feed the starter). Many of the recipes require cooking with milk and butter, as my allergy to dairy requires an epi-pen, and stirring a pot of hot milk, is a bit too "get to ride in an ambulance" risky for me, I've been struggling. I'm not quite ready to try almond milk instead, that might be in a few weeks.

Then I discovered this recipe for Sourdough Coffee Cake. It looked awesome. I read it and then promptly ignored it. The results were fantastic, at least according to my husband. Warning, you want to use the result to make french bread, but only do so if you can nap in a recliner after.

Here are the changes I made to the recipe.

I completely ignored the whole feed the starter first and such instructions.  I had fed the starter the night before, I think and left it in the fridge, so I scooped out a good cup or so with a 1 cup measuring cup. I then re-fed the starter and let it sit for over an hour before returning it to the fridge.

Into the bowl with the starter I added a 1 cup scoop of flour(I guess, there was little precision in this measuring), grabbed a 1/4 cup measuring cup and added 1 scoop of organic cane sugar and then 2 scoops of dark brown sugar(mostly packed), totaled around 3/4 cup, maybe more. The change in sugar was a decision based on what type of sugar we have lots of in the house and what I like in my morning coffee. Added in an egg(another food I can't eat), actually measured the baking soda and salt, completely guessed on the cinnamon, then used the 1 cp measuring cup to approximate the oil. I'm well aware of how many baking rules I have violated. At one point in my life the only measuring cup I could find was a 1/3 cup. I could have bought more, but this was at a time when online shopping wasn't a thing and I never remembered I only had the 1/3 cup at home when I was out shopping. I baked many items from scratch with that single measuring cup, no one ever complained. Then again they were eating baked goods made by a sugar addict.

Before rise, after rise it filled the pan.

I stirred everything together by hand, as I sold my stand mixer several years ago. It took up way too much space on my counter and I had other things I wanted to spend the money on(like bills). I don't regret that decision, but it means all my bread adventures are by hand. I think I just stirred it with a spoon, but I may have gotten my hands involved. I poured it into the loaf pan, and then made the crumble with oil, because I can't touch butter(see comment about epi-pen) and now is not the time to waste gloves.

The loaf then sat on the stove to rise, while I made myself GF vegan chocolate cake from a box, and yes I use their measurements as suggestions and do my own thing.

I baked the chocolate cake first and thne the coffee cake after 1.5 hours of rise time. My youngest thought it was ok, but not sweet enough, the husband thought it was perfect and my oldest ate half the chocolate cake, or would have if I let him.

Next discard recipe will likely be pizza crust.