502 FOOD: New Jersey Crumb Buns

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I spent my formative years in New Jersey. A standard bakery purchase in my family, and one of my all time favorites, were crumb buns - especially the corner buns since they had the most crumb topping!. Trost's in Summit was our bakery of choice. Sadly Trost's closed its doors about ten years ago. Fortunately, Natale's Bakery in Summit picked up the slack and makes a great crumb bun (no icing for me). When I moved to Kentucky, there was not a crumb bun to be found in any bakery. Odd, since I thought the crumb bun was German in origin as are many of the bakeries in Kentucky. Nevertheless, I was sadly crumb bun -less. My wonderful sister sent me some from Natale's for Christmas this year and they were delicious.

Imagine my surprise when I received my Cook's Country magazine this week with New Jersey crumb buns on the cover! According to Katie Leaird, the B&W Bakery in Hackensack, N.J. is at the center of the crumb bun universe. My sister and niece are going to do a test taste to see if we agree. Needless to say, I had to try the recipe and see if the folks at Cook's Country got it right, and I think they did. These are as close as I will get to the New Jersey crumb buns I know and love until I get back to the 201.

Notes:
The recipe calls for two kinds of flour - all purpose flour in the cake and cake flour for the crumb topping. Cook's Illustrated published a New York Crumb Cake recipe in May 2007 that did not have a yeast based cake, but also used cake flour in the crumb topping. I made that cake years ago and it's good, just not what I was looking for. My point is that the cake flour in the crumb topping is a good idea and worth the effort to have a second type of flour on hand.

I highly recommend using a scale when baking. It is much easier and more accurate. I have a Salter scale that I've used for many years. Cook's Illustrated is currently recommending the Oxo Good Grips 11 lb scale, but I have not tried that scale myself.

One last note regarding thermometers. The directions indicate that the cake is done at a temperature of around 215 degrees. I highly recommend the Thermapen thermometer made by Thermoworks. It is fast and accurate and well worth the investment. I have the Classic, but the new Mk4 looks attractive - more water resistant.

Ingredients:

CAKE:
2 1/4 cups (11 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 cups milk
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) granulated sugar
1 large egg
3/4 t. vanilla (my addition)
2 1/4 t. instant or rapid rise yeast
3/4 t. salt
6 T. unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces and very soft

TOPPING:
18 T. (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) brown sugar - either light or dark brown (I used dark here)
1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t.salt
1 t. vanilla (my addition)
4 cups (16 ounces) cake flour
Confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 X13 inch baking dish - they used a Pyrex baking dish as did I.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine flour, milk, sugar, egg, yeast, and salt. Knead on low speed until dough comes together, about 2 minutes.

3. With the mixer running, add butter 1 piece at a time, waiting until each piece is incorporated before adding the next. The softer the butter is, the easier this process will be.

4. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to knead until the dough forms stretch, web-like strands on the sides of the bowl, about 6 minutes longer. Dough will be soft and sticky.

5. Using a greased rubber spatula (I rubbed the spatula in the buttered baking dish to grease it) transfer the dough to the prepared dish. Using floured hands, press the dough into an even layer to the edges of the dish.

6. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and let the dough rise at room temperature until slightly puffy, about one hour.
7. Ten minutes before dough has finished rising, whisk melted butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together in a bowl.
8. Add flour and stir with a rubber spatula until the mixture forms a thick, cohesive dough. Let sit for 10 minutes to allow flour to hydrate.

9. If dough has moved away from the sides of the dish, gently pat back into place.

10. Break topping mixture into rough 1/2 inch pieces using your fingers and scatter in an even layer over the dough. Be sure to cover all the dough with a thick layer of crumbs (they are crumb buns!)

11. Bake about 35 minutes until the crumbs are golden brown, a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, and the cake portion registers about 215 degrees in the center.