In my quest to find more things to do with my sourdough discard, I’ve turned to Instagram. I follow Jenna Fischer (better known as Pam from the Office) who is a fellow sourdough enthusiast and she featured a baker called Artisan Bryan a few weeks ago. I started looking around Bryan’s blog and found a recipe for Johnnycakes. I had never heard of them and decided to give them a try! I will say, my first attempt was a total flop. The dough was raw and pretty much inedible…I ended up turning it into a LOVELY bread pudding which I have happily consumed for the past few days. Not to be discouraged, I decided to re-do the recipe and have dubbed the ensuing product Mickicakes because I’m not sure how related my final product is to the original johnnycakes.

Through my trial and error, I changed quite a few elements of the recipe in order to suit my palate. Although not as close to the original as hoped, these are still a delicious but very caloric treat with a coffee. Bryan mentioned in the instagram comments, in response to a question, that without the coconut milk, the cakes don’t taste the same and I have to agree. Both of the times I made these, I really like the subtle addition of flavor from the unsweetened coconut milk. I also found that the pricks from the fork serve a purpose other than decorative. Like Irish soda bread, these cakes are incredibly dense and need the pokes from the tines of a fork to allow for heat distribution for a proper bake. I also ended up doubling the baking time as I found that in the original recipe, the 15-20 minute bake time left my johnnycakes extremely raw inside and very pale. I hope that you enjoy my new recipe, it’s inspired by my love for hot cross buns and contains some of the same ingredients such as candied lemon or orange peel and raisins! This recipe made about 12 130 gram balls of dough with an extra munchkin sized ball of dough that was under 100 grams.

Sourdough Discard Mickicake Recipe

• 500 grams All Purpose Flour
• 250 grams sourdough discard
• 200 grams unsweetened coconut milk
• 150 grams unsalted butter at room temperature
• 50 grams raisins
• 50 grams candied lemon peel
• Dash of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (I used 1/4 of a teaspoon and it was fine but I felt that it could have used some more salt so use whichever amount you prefer)

1. Combine all ingredients and knead until smooth and there are no chunks of butter. Add additional flour if needed to prevent a sticky dough.
2. Let rise at room temperature for 2 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 375F.
4. Divide and shape dough into 130 gram balls. Place the dough balls on a lined oven sheet and flatten with your palm.
5. Prick all the way through multiple times with a fork.
6. Lightly brush with extra coconut milk.
7. Bake for 40-45 minutes to start or until golden brown. Ensure that they are golden brown before removing because the raw dough does not taste good at all.