These are incredibly good, yeasty coffee cakes that are topped with sweet, juicy apples. Thanks to applesauce in the dough, the coffee cakes also are moist and tender. You won't need eggs to make the soft dough, but you will need flax seed meal, which now is less expensive than eggs! I like to use the flax seed meal because it gives the bread extra nutrition and fiber (besides helping to substitute for the pricey eggs). The coffee cakes are easy to make, and they air fry in about 25 minutes. We like the not-too-sweet coffee cakes for breakfast, but they'd also be right at home with a cup of tea or coffee for an afternoon snack. Enjoy!
Air Fryer Sourdough Apple Coffee Cakes -- Makes 2 Small Coffee Cakes
1 cup of sourdough starter/discard
1/3 cup of canola oil
1 tablespoon of flax seed meal
1/2 cup of milk
1/4 cup of dark brown sugar
1/2 cup of applesauce
1 cup of white whole-wheat flour (or use regular whole-wheat flour)
In a large bowl whisk together well the starter/discard, oil, flax seed meal, milk, brown sugar, and applesauce. Stir in the flour until well combined. Loosely cover the mixture with plastic wrap and let it sit for at least an hour (4-5 hours is just fine, if you have a cool kitchen and things to do). When you're ready, add to the mixture:
2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons of salt
Mix in the flour and salt well and knead the dough for 3-5 minutes, adding an additional 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour as you knead to prevent the dough from being too sticky. Spritz two 6-inch round cake pans with non-stick cooking spray and line the pans (bottom and sides) with baking parchment. Spritz the parchment with a little cooking spray. Divide the dough in half and put half in each of the prepared pans. Prepare the topping for the coffee cakes:
3 medium apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
3-4 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
Arrange half of the apples on top of the dough in each pan and sprinkle half the sugar on top of the apples in each pan. Sprinkle cinnamon over the apples and sugar. Dot the top of the apple mixture in each pan with 1 tablespoon of butter, cut into small bits (2 tablespoons of butter, total). You can dust the top of the apples with a little more cinnamon, if you'd like. Spritz the top of the apples with a little non-stick cooking spray and loosely cover the pans with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise until it increases in volume by about one-third. This usually takes 2-3 hours in my coolish kitchen. Put one pan of dough into the air fryer basket, put the basket in the air fryer, and air fry the coffee cake at 320 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until the coffee cake is a deep golden brown on top and a pick inserted in the center comes out with no wet dough on it (the internal temperature of the dough should be about 200 degrees). Remove the pan from the air fryer to cool and repeat the cooking process with the remaining risen dough. Let the air fried coffee cakes cool a little before trying to remove them from the pans.
If you'd like, you can brush the tops of the baked coffee cakes with the following mixture:
1/4 cup of apricot (or orange) jam
1-2 tablespoon of water
Warm the jam/water in a microwave-safe cup for about 30 seconds, stir it well, then brush it on top of the apple topping on the warm coffee cakes.
