Ingredients
- 50g sourdough starter (active or discard)
- 1/2 cup (120g) whole milk, plus more for brushing
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 cups (420g) flour
- 2 tsp nutmeg
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries, plus more (finely chopped) for decoration
- 1 small apple, finely diced
- Powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together sourdough starter and milk.
- In a large bowl (or stand mixer), cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla.
- Add flour, spices, salt, and baking powder to the creamed butter /sugar and beat until it is a sandy consistency.
- Add the sourdough/milk mixture and beat until it comes together into a dough. You may need to scrape down the bowl a few times!
- Optional long fermentation: Allow to ferment at room temperature for about 8 hours, or overnight.
- Fold in the dried cranberries and diced apple, then refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet (or two) with parchment paper.
- Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the dough to 1/4″-1/2″ inch thick. Cut out soul cakes with a circular cookie cutter or biscuit cutter (mine has about 3.5″ diameter), and place on baking sheet. They don’t spread much, but I still find it better to give them plenty of space.
- Cut a cross on each cake and place a small piece of dried cranberry at each point and in the center, then brush with milk.
- Bake 20 minutes, or until edges are just starting to lightly brown.
- Cool on a baking rack. If desired, dust with powdered sugar once completely cool.
Notes
Yield will depend on the thickness you roll it out to and the size of your cookie cutter. Rolling them fairly thin, I can get up to 30 soul cakes. Rolling them out thicker means I get about 24.