New York style crumb cake

If you love a light, moist coffee cake with a crumb topping, you’ll have no trouble devouring a piece of this delicious cake.

If you love light, moist coffee cake, you’ll love this cake.

If you love a light, moist coffee cake topped with an unusually divine ratio of butter chunks… well, save this whole pot because that’s what you’re going to get.

The cake is delicious, slightly sweet and fluffy, but nothing extraordinary to write home about. The real star of this cake, however, is the golden, sweet crumble topping and the whole combination is worth enjoying. Bite after bite.

Waiting for the perfect crumble coffee cake to arrive. My husband, who has an undying love for coffee cake, thought this was one of the best. It’s great because Thanksgiving morning is our breakfast. You know, a day of eating well.

New York Style Crumb Cake

Serves: 9

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Materials Needed

Crumb Topping:

• ⅓ cup (71 g) granulated sugar
• ⅓ cup (71 g) dark brown sugar
• ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons (113 grams) butter, melted and still warm
• 1 ¾ cups (200 g) cake flour

Cake:

• 1 ¼ cups (143 grams) cake flour
• ½ cup (106 grams) granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons (85 g) butter, cut into 6 pieces, soft but still cool
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅓ cup buttermilk
• Powdered sugar, optional

Instructions

1. For the topping, in a medium bowl, combine the sugars, cinnamon, salt, and melted butter. Add the flour and stir with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until the mixture is thick and smooth. Let cool at room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.
2. For the cake, adjust the oven rack to the upper-middle position and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Cut a 16-inch length of parchment or aluminum foil and fold it lengthwise to a 7-inch width. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and line the pan with parchment paper, pushing it into the corners and sides; Don’t let the excess hang over the edges.
3. In a large bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer), whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (electric or handheld), add the softened butter one at a time and continue to beat until the mixture resembles wet crumbs. Add eggs, yolks, vanilla, and buttermilk and beat on medium-high speed until dough is light and fluffy, about 1 minute, scraping once if needed.
4. Pour the batter into the baking pan and spread it in an even layer. Break the reserved crumbs into large pea-sized pieces and spread over the dough in an even layer. Bake the cake until the pieces are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan by lifting up the parchment paper or aluminum foil. Before serving, sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.

Notes

Flour: If you add all-purpose flour instead of cake flour, the cake will be dry and tough. I don’t usually have cake flour on hand, so I substitute cornmeal and all-purpose flour. I measure out 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in a 1-cup measure and fill the rest with all-purpose flour. That ends up being 7/8 cup all-purpose flour and 1/8 cup cornstarch. I then strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer onto wax paper (I repeat as needed depending on how much you need – this recipe makes a total of 3 cups of cake batter).
Doubling: The recipe can be doubled and baked in a 9X13-inch baking dish (increasing the baking time to about 42 minutes).