Summer is slowly coming to an end, the days are getting shorter and temperatures are dropping. Fortunately, I have a comfort food for you today – as big as a whole baking tray! There is German Zwetschgendatschi – sheet cake with a thin sourdough base. If you don’t want to bake a whole sheet cake, you can halve the recipe and bake it in a cake or tart pan.

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Grandma’s plum cake recipe – which version is the original?

How is the original Zwetschgendatschi made? The classic versions use sponge dough, shortcrust pastry or yeast dough, but there are also other versions. Don’t get me wrong! Every variation has its place and when someone puts a piece of plum cake in front of me, I don’t care which dough the base is made from. But Zwetschgendatschi like grandma used to make, for me that clearly means plum cake with yeast dough. The base must be thin because it is naturally drier than a sponge base, for example. Of course, there’s really nothing to improve on grandma’s recipes, which is why this sourdough version is more like a fine-tuning of a classic. The goal: Like plum cake with yeast dough, but softer. The sourdough in the dough ensures that the Zwetschgendatschi still tastes juicy and fresh even after a few days. In addition, the aroma of sourdough is much more delicate than the taste of industrially produced yeast.

And finally, the most important question: How do you prefer to eat your Zwetschgendatschi – with or without crumble?

Can you also bake Zwetschgendatschi with plums?

There are different types of plums. There are large round plums and oval plums whose pits are difficult to remove. Zwetschgendatschi is traditionally made with the smaller oval plums. You can also use the large round plums, but they contain more liquid. I would recommend cutting the plums into eighths and leaving enough space around the edges when covering the base. You can also raise the edge slightly so that the plum juice stays on the cake while baking.

What you need for the juicy plum tart with sourdough base

• Flour: The best flour for this recipe is all-purpose flour or wheat flour 405. The higher the type number of the flour, the more husks are still contained in the flour. If you want to use wholemeal flour, you may need to increase the proportion of water in the recipe by 5 to 10 per cent.
• Sourdough starter: The sourdough doesn’t have to be freshly fed, but it shouldn’t have been more than a week since it was last refreshed. If you have discard left over, I have the right recipes for you here. I feed my sourdough with equal parts water and flour. For the flour, I use a mixture of wheat flour and wholegrain rye flour. If you feed your sourdough with a different water-to-flour ratio, you will need to adjust the amount of water in the recipe accordingly.
• Butter: You can replace the butter with a vegan alternative. You need soft butter for the dough so that it combines well with the other ingredients. For the streusel, the butter should be cold so that the streusel does not melt during baking.
• Milk: The recipe works just as well with cow’s milk as with vegan milk alternatives. You can even replace the milk with water. However, the dough is softer with milk than with water.
• Sugar: I used white sugar. However, brown sugar also works very well in the streusel.
• Plums: You can find out how to make a plum cake from the Zwetschgendatschi here.
• Cinnamon: If cinnamon is not your thing, you can also replace it with other flavors such as vanilla extract or lemon zest.

Helpful tools – My recommendations

✨ The links with an star* are affiliate links. If you click on one of these links and buy something, I get a small commission and you support my work (thanks for that 🧡). This does not change the price for you. You can find more information on privacy policy here.✨

• A grain mill* for freshly ground wholemeal flour.
• A Danish Whisk* – especially if you don’t use a kitchen machine. This allows you to mix your ingredients without the whole dough sticking to the spoon.
• A kitchen scale*.
• You can use a stainless steel dough knife* to cut your dough pieces or shape your loaves.
• The round enamel cake tin* is scratch-resistant, durable and ideal for cakes and tarts.
• A wooden rolling pin*.
• A steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven mould* and lava stones*. The tray is filled with the stones and placed on the bottom of the oven during preheating. When you put your bread in the oven, pour hot water onto the stones. This creates steam, which ensures that your bread rises well.
• A cooling rack* for bread, rolls and waffles.
• A sharp bread knife*.

You can find more product recommendations here.

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Quick and Easy Sourdough Discard Lemon Loaf

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Recipe: Easy Sourdough Sheet Cake with Plums and Cinnamon Streusel Topping

Like Zwetschgendatschi with yeast dough, only juicier. The sourdough in the dough ensures that the Zwetschgendatschi still tastes juicy and fresh even after a few days.

Print Recipe Rezept merken

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Resting Time 16 hours hrs

Total Time 17 hours hrs

Course Cake, Zwetschgendatschi

Cuisine German

Servings 1 Baking sheet

Ingredients

  

dough

• 400 g cake flour
• 40 g sourdough starter
• 60 g butter soft or a vegan alternative
• 60 g sugar
• 240 g milk or a vegan alternative
• 1 pinch of salt

Topping

• 1500 g plums

Crumb topping

• 90 g butter or a vegan alternative
• 90 g sugar
• 180 g cake flour
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon optional

Instructions

 

Day 1

• Mix the flour, sourdough starter, milk, butter, sugar and salt to form a dough.
• Cover the dough and leave to rest at room temperature for six to eight hours until the volume of the dough has increased significantly. Stretch and fold once after 30 minutes.
• Roll out the dough and place on a greased baking tray.
• Brush the dough with milk or water to prevent the dough from drying out.
• Cover the baking tray and place in the fridge overnight or for eight to ten hours.

Day 2

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
• To make the streusel, put the flour, butter, sugar, salt and cinnamon in a bowl and work into crumbly crumbs with your fingertips.
• Wash, halve and pit the plums.
• Cover the dough with the plums and sprinkle with the streusel.
• Place the tray in the oven and bake the plum cake for around 35 minutes until the crumble is golden brown.
• Happy baking!

Notes

If you don’t want to bake a whole sheet cake, you can halve the recipe and bake it in a cake or tart pan.

Sourdough starter: The sourdough doesn’t have to be freshly fed, but it shouldn’t have been more than a week since it was last refreshed. If you have discard left over, I have the right recipes for you here. I feed my sourdough with equal parts water and flour. For the flour, I use a mixture of wheat flour and wholegrain rye flour. If you feed your sourdough with a different water-to-flour ratio, you will need to adjust the amount of water in the recipe accordingly.

Butter: You can replace the butter with a vegan alternative. You need soft butter for the dough so that it combines well with the other ingredients. For the streusel, the butter should be cold so that the streusel does not melt during baking.

Plums: You can find out how to make a plum cake from the Zwetschgendatschi here.

Cinnamon: If cinnamon is not your thing, you can also replace it with other flavors such as vanilla extract or lemon zest.

Keyword classic cake, no yeast, sheet cake, soft, with sourdough

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