Crumb Cake

Crumb cake was a staple, yes a staple, in my home when I was a teenager.  My father always had two Entemann's cakes on hand as he liked to pack a piece in his lunchbox for his coffee break at work.  For my father, gathering for coffee with relatives was a not only a childhood constant but it was also a constant in his adult life. His father had 10 siblings while his mother had 3 and they often gathered with coffee and pastry of some kind.  I remember gathering at my grandmother's table and she would set out cold cut, rolls, butter, and some kind of pastry.  She had a large table and I remember my uncles and aunts talking and my grandfather's accented voice.  Granny's house was the only place I had butter and lunch meat sandwiches.  I would listen to the voices in the room, with Pop's voice rising up in octaves then falling down and his conversation was peppered with Slovakian words.  I would sit across from a framed picture of DaVinci's Last Supper eating my sandwich, pastry, and drinking orange soda and contemplating the depth of that picture.

I have noticed a common thread in my posts and I realize that many of my posts are rememberances of the past and how I am remaking the recipes that shaped my life, my experiences, my perceptions, and my tastes.  I am grateful to my parents and family for giving me this nutrition and sustenance of my soul.  My parents' were always putting a pot of coffee on and sharing a coffee cake and conversation with family and friends that stopped over. So much of life is gathered around the table and sharing in whatever way that a family system shares life as it unfolds, often good sometimes not so good, but the family table is always there.  I am fortunate to still have that family table to go home to and I cherish it when I am there.

Crumb Cake
Preheat oven to 325F
Line an 8 inch square pan with parchment paper, butter or spray the pan before you put parchment if you would like a perfect square shape - I just manipulate the parchment - I don't mind an imperfect square.

Streusel Crumb Topping
1/3 cup granualted sugar
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 stick (4 ounces butter) melted and still warm
1 3/4 cup cake flour

Whisk to combine sugars, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a medium bowl.
Add flour and stir until dough combines together, set aside to cool.

Cake
1 1/4 cup cake flour
1/2 cup granualated sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons slightly softened butter, cut into 6 pieces
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup buttermilk
Confectioner's sugar

In bowl for stand mixer bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt on low until just combined.
Add butter pieces one at a time as the mixer is running at low speed.
Continute until mixture resembles moist crumbs 1 1/2 minutes.
Add egg, yolk, vanilla and buttermilk and beat on medium high speed until light and fluffy around 1 minute.
Scrape batter into paking pan spreading into an even layer.
Break apart the streusel topping into pea sized pellets and spread evenly over the cake working from the outside to the middle.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until a cake tester inserted into center is crumb free.
Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes.
Dust with powdered sugar before serving.



adapted from CI

Grammy's Wonderful Blueberry Muffins

My grandmother's blueberry muffin recipe card reads "Wonderful Blueberry Muffins" and they are wonderful.  Every time I eat one of Grammy’s muffins,  the happy memories they bring flood back.  Nearly every Sunday during the summer, my Grammy would get up early and bake blueberry muffins for her children and grandchildren.  Everyone gathered at my Gram’s house on Sunday mornings for breakfast and togetherness.  My cousins and I looked forward to those Sunday breakfast blueberry muffins.  My grandmother was a mix (she no longer cooks or bakes) of scratch cooking and convenience cooking.  She was known for her three standard homemade treats - banana bread, blond brownies, and blueberry muffins.  Her two semi-homemade treats were a box chocolate sheet cake for special occasions topping it with a Crisco based vanilla frosting that I loved and strawberry banana Jello in a Pyrex dish with a can of fruit cocktail or mandarin oranges mixed in which was a much anticipated picnic standard.   On Thanksgiving and Christmas she must have been plain tired out as she reheated Mrs. Smith pre-made frozen apple pies and served it with Coolwhip topping.  Her cooking repertoire included the whole range of cooking possibilities and she served her family in the best way she could and she served it up with a whole lot of love.

Grammy's Wonderful Blueberry Muffins

Makes about 1 dozen

2 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt scant

¼ cup sugar

1 cup milk

1/3 cup Crisco melted is in Grammy’s recipe but I use canola oil or melted butter

1 ½ cups or 1 pint fresh or frozen blueberries – if frozen do not defrost

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar, together in a large bowl.

Add 1 beaten eggs, milk, and oil and mix with wooden spoon until just combined.

Add blueberries and mix lightly.

Spoon the batter into a greased or lined muffin tin.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack.

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

Chocolate kiss cookies are a special cookie not only because their butter and chocolate base but the chocolate kiss candy pressed into the cookie when they are hot out of the oven.  The chocolate kiss melts and mingles with the cookie creating a fudge like quality.  I always make these cookies for my Christmas cookie trays but I do make them occasionally throughout the year when the family is craving chocolate.  When I start unwrapping the kisses, smiles light up my family’s faces.   . 

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

makes 36 cookies

2/3 cup butter

½  cup sugar

¼  cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼  teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ¼  cups all purpose unbleached flour

3/4 cup chocolate or multi-colored sprinkles - if desired

36 chocolate kisses unwrapped

Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with electric mixer on medium speed. 

Scrape bowl.

Beat in egg and vanilla until combined.

Add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt, beat until combined scraping sides with machine on low.

Chill dough for 30 minutes, or until easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 375°F

Scoop dough with a small cookie scoop or shape into 1 inch balls, roll in sprinkles if using and place on a parchment lined sheet pan 2 inches apart.

Bake for 6-8 minutes depending on your oven.

Remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate kiss into each cookie.

Transfer to wire racks.

Schneckennudeln

The simplicity of the snickerdoodle is a beautiful thing -- it satisfies a craving for a sugar cookie without the use of cookie cutters.  The cinnamon and cream of tartar give this cookie its unique flavor.  When I was a teenager, I remember perusing my mom's Betty Crocker cookbook with the pastel yellow, pink and blue black outlined squares and seeing the name of these cookies and becoming instantly entranced.  I have been making these cookies for many years.

Snickerdoodles

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ pound (2 sticks) butter softened

1 ½ cups of granulated sugar

2 large eggs

Preheat oven 350°F

In a medium bowl mix flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.

Cream butter and sugar in mixer until fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time beat until just incorporated.

Mix in flour mixture until blended and smooth. 

Mix on a plate ¼ cup granulated sugar with 4 teaspoons of cinnamon.

Make 1 to 1¼ inch balls (I use a scoop) and roll the balls in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and place on baking sheet 2-3 inches apart.

Bake for 8-11 minutes depending on your oven (rotate baking sheets if your oven bakes unevenly)

Cool on racks

Buttermilk Rye Bread

I have been on a mission to provide better bread for my family. Bread without all the additives and unnecessary ingredients. I just love buttermilk in baked goods. I haven't made the leap to drinking it from a glass though. I worked with a woman who swore by the health benefits of buttermilk (I think she was hoping the buttermilk would offset her extreme candy corn habit!). This was a nice bread especially toasted. The kids loved it.

I used my 1 lb bread machine to mix and knead the dough.

Buttermilk Rye

7/8 cup buttermilk

2 cups of bread flour

1/3 cup rye flour

1 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon butter

1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

2 teaspoons dry yeast

Follow your bread machines directions or use your stand mixer kneading and rising for the appropriate comparable time. Shape into loaf, loaves or rolls and raise in a warm place with a towel over . Bake at 375F until sounds hollow. Place a cake pan of ice on the bottom rack of oven to create steam and a crusty exterior.