This sourdough blueberry coffee cake is a family favorite and an easy sourdough discard recipe. The tender, buttery crumb bursts with juicy blueberries and is topped with a melt-in-your-mouth, brown sugar, and cinnamon crumb.
We love coffee cakes over here. From pumpkin coffee cake, simple cinnamon sourdough coffee cake, or this blueberry version, they are such a versatile bake because they can so easily serve as a main dish, a cozy dessert, or both.
One of my favorite ways to easily serve a crowd is to bake up a savory sourdough breakfast strata or ham and cheese frittata and serve it alongside this irresistible blueberry coffee cake for a built-in dessert.
We stock up during blueberry season, freezing plenty of blueberries for the cold winter ahead. A crumb-topped cake with fresh blueberries is so cheery and delicious, the perfect recipe for bringing summer flavors to the middle of winter.
This recipe is often labeled a blueberry buckle, due to the nature of the baking process and how the crumb topping creates a buckling effect on the surface.
Whether you call it a buckle, a breakfast cake, a crumb cake, or simply a coffee cake, you’ll love the rich crumb, the tart berries, and the scrumptious crumble topping of this sweet treat.
If you’re new to sourdough, take a look at my post on how to make a sourdough starter or maintaining and feeding a starter. You’ll be baking sourdough bread and sourdough discard coffee cakes in no time!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Delicious – Served for breakfast or dessert, this blueberry coffee cake recipe is perfect with a steaming cup of coffee. It’s sweet and fluffy, bursting with pockets of tart blueberries, and topped with a brown sugar and butter streusel.
Sourdough discard – This is a great way to put your discard to good use! You’ll have the flavor and nutritional benefits of fermented grains all in one easy and mouth-watering recipe! The addition of sourdough starter provides moisture and a mild, tangy flavor. For less sourdough tang, use a recently fed starter.
Easy and plentiful – It’s an easy recipe to prepare and bake quickly, offering plenty of servings for company or to enjoy throughout the week!
Ingredients
Sourdough starter – A fed starter will produce very little sourdough flavor, while using sourdough discard will add a touch of sourdough tang. Either one will work in this recipe!
Blueberries – Fresh or frozen blueberries will do. See below for tips on using frozen blueberries.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
How to Make Sourdough Blueberry Coffee Cake
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9×13 baking dish. Prepare the crumb mixture by adding melted and cooled butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour to a medium bowl. Mix until combined, then set to the side.
Step 2: In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the room-temperature butter, sugar, and brown sugar.
Step 3: Add the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, sourdough starter, and milk, blending until smooth.
Step 4: In a separate bowl, combine salt, baking soda, baking powder, and flour. Add these dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, then mix on low speed until just combined. You don’t want to overmix the batter.
Step 5: Toss the blueberries with two teaspoons of flour to coat, a step that will help them not to sink to the bottom.
Step 6: Pour half of the cake batter into the baking dish, sprinkle half of the blueberries on top, then follow with half of the crumb mixture.
Step 7: Gently fold the rest of the blueberries into the remaining batter, then pour over the crumble in the baking dish. Sprinkle the rest of the crumb topping over the top of the batter.
Step 8: Bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown, the center is set, and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before serving.
Tips
- I handle the blueberries with a wooden spoon or spatula to avoid staining my hands.
- Frozen blueberries will lower the temperature of the cake batter, which may mean your cake will require additional baking time.
- Whole milk and full-fat sour cream make this cake deliciously rich.
- Don’t overmix the cake batter or it may not turn out as fluffy and light.
- Add a drizzle of your favorite icing to the cooled cake, if you’d like.
- Replacing the vanilla extract with almond extract adds a fun twist of flavor. Flavor to taste, but remember that almond flavoring is very potent.
- Try adding lemon zest to the crumb mixture.
Recipe FAQs
While best enjoyed the same day, this coffee cake can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days. You can also refrigerate or freeze for longer storage. It’s delicious served warm, at room temperature, or even cold from the fridge.
Regular cakes have frosting, whereas coffee cakes have a crumb topping. The ingredients are often the same!
Sour cream adds moisture while keeping the batter thick, and the added fat content contributes more richness to the cake.
To avoid the cake sinking in the center, make sure to mix the batter gently and only until combined. Overmixing can cause a cake to deflate. You should also bake in a preheated oven and keep the door shut to avoid temperature fluctuation. Additionally, if your baking soda is older than 6 months and/or stored open, it may be time for new baking soda.
Serve your coffee cake with a cup of coffee or hot tea! You can also serve it as a main dish with a side of fresh fruit, bacon or sausage, or paired with an egg dish.
More Sourdough Recipes from the Farmhouse
- Sourdough Swedish Cinnamon Buns
- Sourdough Pastry Braid
- Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
- Easy Sourdough Crumpets
- Best Sourdough Crepes
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love it if you could come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Sourdough Blueberry Coffee Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Crumb
- 3/4 cup melted butter, 171g
- 1 cup brown sugar, 160g
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 15g
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, 140g
Coffee Cake
- 1 cup softened butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar, 201g
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, 106g
- 1 cup sour cream, full-fat
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 8g
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter, active or discard, 113g
- 1 1/4 cup milk, 354g
- 1 teaspoon salt, 7g
- 1 teaspoon baking soda, 17g
- 1 teaspoon baking powder, 17g
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, 420g
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Prepare the crumb mixture by adding melted and cooled butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour to a medium bowl. Mix until combined, then set to the side.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the room-temperature butter, sugar, and brown sugar.
- Add the sour cream, eggs, vanilla, sourdough starter, and milk, blending until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, combine salt, baking soda, baking powder, and flour. Add these dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, then mix on low speed until just combined. You don’t want to overmix the batter.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9×13 baking dish. Toss the blueberries with two teaspoons of flour to coat, a step that will help them not to sink to the bottom.
- Pour half of the cake batter into the baking dish, sprinkle half of the blueberries on top, then follow with half of the crumb mixture.
- Gently fold the rest of the blueberries into the remaining batter, then pour over the crumble in the baking dish. Sprinkle the rest of the crumb topping over the top of the batter.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown, the center is set, and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before serving.
Notes
- I handle the blueberries with a wooden spoon or spatula to avoid staining my hands.
- If you want to use frozen blueberries, use them straight from frozen and do not thaw.
- Frozen blueberries will lower the temperature of the cake batter, which may mean your cake will require additional baking time.
- Whole milk and full-fat sour cream make this cake deliciously rich.
- Don’t overmix the cake batter or it may not turn out as fluffy and light.
- Add a drizzle of your favorite icing to the cooled cake, if you’d like.
- Replacing the vanilla extract with almond extract adds a fun twist of flavor. Flavor to taste, but remember that almond flavoring is very potent.
- Try adding lemon zest to the crumb mixture.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I’m terrified but hopeful for this recipe because I’m already well into making it but I’ve only now noticed that the ingredients measurements are completely wrong. 3 cups of flour DOES NOT weigh 420g, and neither a teaspoon of baking soda or baking powder weighs 17g!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I’m glad I caught this or I’d have a very gross tasting coffee cake. But now I’m not sure how much to use. A teaspoon? A tablespoon? I’m also not surprised that all the other comments that mentioned the ridiculous weight conversions received no reply. This is obviously just another cut and paste mommy blog full of plagiarized recipes where the “author” doesn’t care to get anything right except the SEO laden content and the affiliate links. I certainly won’t be returning to this site in the future, but now I have to unfortunately try to rescue this recipe.
Here’s my baking conversion chart, so you can get some clarification.
Lisa,
I love your recipes and I don’t think that you’re some “cut and paste mommy blog full of plagiarized recipes.”
I’ve only been trying sourdough since December and I think this is my first sweet, so maybe you only offer conversions on this type of recipe or maybe you only recently began offering conversions. But you must have noticed that the comments on here are filled with critiques about the inaccurate conversions.
I’ve seen a few places where you refer to how you do conversions and I did go read that post and the charts.
But that is not going to work for many (maybe even most) people. Conversions for things that are less standard like sourdough starter are fine, but flour, sugar, soda… (And in this recipe your baking powder and baking soda conversions are incorrect based on your own conversion chart because you say teaspoon and then give the conversion for Tablespoons)
Instead of defending your position by just linking to your conversion method, consider changing how you do it since the comments indicate that people want to follow standards–yes even when things vary. The packaging on flour gives a conversion–and wheat flour shows that it is different from white–yes, heavier as you mention in that post.
It was actually validating to see from the comments that I’m not the only one who has conversions memorized.
I appreciate that you offer conversions–even better is when the site has the built in function to switch to metric. But it is confusing to all of us when you use your own system and the rest of us are using a different system–a system that we seem to share.
Your scoop and dump method for measuring flour is great. But that’s not how it was originally measured to get the conversion. That’s how I do it too, but not as a method of measuring. To me measuring cups are just things to keep in my bags as scoops or keep around because my husband insists on measuring that way. I scoop and weigh.
People shouldn’t be expected to have differente conversions for the same items at different websites. We need consistency. And the conversions may already be different depending on things like altitude and temperature–but if the fluctuation is slight many of us probably don’t worry about it.
I’m not trying to be rude or mean, but I am seriously begging you to consider your large audience who loves your recipes. You make it easier for us when you use standard conversions. PLEASE
This is so good! Gave some of it away and it was liked by the recipients as well! I would definitely make this again.
This is a great recipe. I’ve made it twice and both times I had to bake a little longer (15 min) to allow the center to set up. This is a great dessert for after a large dinner or a stand alone with coffee. I will make this on a regular rotation!!
Turned out wonderful! I made extra crumb topping and it was looking a little too meaty because of the extra 1/4 cup butter I used, but I added more flour until it came together. Wonderful. I had to bake it for an additional thirty minutes because the middle was still jiggly, but overall a really good recipe. Not to sweet! Which is perfect.
Slightly concerned.
The batter overflowed to the bottom of the oven. It’s still baking at it’s been 60 minutes and the middle is jiggly top is browned. I had to put aluminum foil over and pray it continues to bake without burning.
Also— I’d revise the melted and cool butter for the crumb topping to know how much of each in directions. Ingredients only say melted butter.
I wish I had used the filling and crumb topping from the original coffee cake recipe that’s also listed on here. The crumble topping from this recipe was more like wet paste. It sunk right into the cake and left me with a bare top. And the texture of this coffee cake was more like a regular yellow cake than a dense coffee cake.
Absolutely delicious, everyone in my family loved it. The recipe is large enough for everyone to have seconds.
Flavor of this was amazing. However the entire middle of my coffee cake didn’t cook after an hour and 10 minutes. Toothpick trick came out clean, however the middle was a sloppy mess. What did I do wrong? I did take the middle and scoop it onto a skillet and made pancakes!
What size of pan did you use? That sounds underbaked. I am sorry that you had this issue!
Anthony,
This has been my experience also–with a 9X13 pan as directed. I made it twice and both times it was completely undone–more than a little undercooked in the center. The first time I was a bit panicked as I was making it for church for the next morning and it was past 11pm already. I was too tired tot hink about it, so I just put it in the cooling oven overnight. I’d had this issue with a different blueberry coffee cake recipe in a 9X9 and was really getting frustrated.
But in the morning, the cake was perfect–sitting in the cooling oven had finished the baking process and it was wonderfully moist. That other recipe had been dry and yet uncooked in places, so this one is much better.
I would give this recipe 10 stars if I could! I’ve made it 3 times now and everywhere I bring it it’s a hit! It is perfectly delicious without being overly sweet. Thank you for this recipe(:
The recipe calls for 1-1/4 cup milk (354-grams), but, 1-1/4 cup of milk is actually (283 grams) so anyone using grams instead of cups may be why it’s soupy and not cooking properly. Or is there a reason you said 354 grams, that doesn’t even come close. I’m new to sourdough baking so I’m asking the question not being mean.
YES! I was coming to let her know the conversions were wrong also. It’s not just the milk.
Did she mean Tablespoons for baking soda and baking powder or teaspoons–the grams were for Tablespoon conversions.
Flour and bronw sugar conversions were also off and inconsistent within the recipe–different conversion for the crumb ingredients than for the cake.
I typically know the conversions in my head and just assumed the cups measurements were what were meant–though the soda and powder did give me a pause since they really did line up pretty closely with a tablespoon measurement.
Everything worked out, but after 50 minutes it was still uncooked in the middle–not a little, but quite liquid. I was planning to take it to church inthe morning, so I just turned the oven off and left it overnight–I’d finished late. I checked it about 7 hours later and it was perfect–I did remove it and cut it down the center to be certain. Beautifully moist!
Very light and delicious!