This is my new favorite breakfast pastry. The ratios are just right with lots of tangy berries sunk into moist cake with very crunchy topping. I really love this cake and its soooo easy to make.
I started with the recipe for Rhubarb Big Crumb Coffee Cake at Smitten Kitchen. I changed the amounts to fit nicely in a larger baking pan and swapped out a few of the ingredients and TA DA!
New York Style Berry Crumble Coffee Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Adapted from The New York Times 6/6/07
FOR THE BERRY FILLING:
- 2 1/2 to 3 cups tangy berries (I used 1/2 blueberry and 1/2 raspberry)
- 1/4 cup sugar (or slightly less according to your preference)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
FOR THE CRUMBS:
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
FOR THE CAKE:
- 1/2 cup greek yogurt (I used 2%)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups cake or all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 9 tablespoons softened unsalted butter, cut into pieces plus more for greasing
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9X12-inch baking pan. Toss together the filling ingredients. Set aside.
2. To make crumbs, place sugars, spices and salt in a large bowl and whisk in melted butter until smooth. Add flour with a wooden spoon. It will look and feel like a solid dough. Leave it pressed together in the bottom of the bowl and set aside.
3. To prepare cake, in a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add butter and a spoonful of sour cream mixture and mix on medium speed until flour is moistened. Increase speed and beat for 30 seconds. Add remaining sour cream mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition, and scraping down the sides of bowl with a spatula. Scoop out about 3/4 cup batter and set aside.
4. Scrape remaining batter into prepared pan. It will cover the bottom of the pan thinly. Spoon the berries over the batter. Dollop set-aside batter over the berries. It doesn’t have to be even and it won’t cover all the berries.
5. Using your fingers, break topping mixture into big crumbs, about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch in size. They do not have to be uniform. Sprinkle over cake. Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean of batter (it might be moist from the berries), 45 to 55 minutes. Cool to room temperature (or just above) before serving.
Yield: 16-20 servings.