Friday, July 1, 2011

NY Style Crumb Muffins & A New Baking Group

One of my favorite baking groups, Sweet Melissa Sunday's is coming to an end. We're baking two recipes for the next couple of months, with our last recipe in August. Besides Melissa's great recipes, the reason I've enjoyed this group so much is the other bakers. It's such a great group of women! I was thrilled when Karen from Karen's Cookies Cakes and More suggested we bake our way through Matt Lewis's Baked Explorations. I'd been wanting to buy this cookbook and now I have a really good reason to buy it! Not that I need another cookbook, I am not sure what the count is these days but I know it's way over 100.

When I read through the recipe for the NY Style Crumb Cake, I quickly realized this wasn't a low fat recipe. 2 1/2 sticks of butter? I knew this much butter would bring two things, a delicious cake and way too many calories! My solution, cut the recipe in half. When reading Karen's comments on the recipe, I noticed she'd had a failure with an 8" pan. Thinking maybe the pan was too small, I sent Karen an email and inquired about using a 9" pan. She quickly responded that the 8" pan was too big and I needed to use something smaller. I decided to use my large muffin tins.

Not being from New York, I was curious what a New York style Crumb Cake was. I think it's what we call a Coffee Cake in the Midwest. My crumb topping didn't seem to be sticking together enough to make these big crumbs. I didn't have the time or the patience to make a bunch of large crumbs, so I went with the topping as it was. There were some large crumbs, otherwise it was like a cake topping. My half recipe made 5 muffins. A couple were pretty large, so I think I could have made 6 muffins. I had quite a bit of topping leftover, which I saved for the next fruit crumble.

The recipe called for 60 minutes of baking time. I set the timer for 30 minutes and when I checked them, I was a little surprised to find they were done. I think they could have baked for 20 - 25 minutes. As the muffins rose, the topping spread out and in the end I didn't end up with as much crumb topping as I would have liked. That's probably why I have so much leftover!!!



OMG! These are so good. They have such a nice tender crumb and the flavor is delicious!
You can find the recipe here on Karen's blog and the links to the other Baked bakers's here!

I am linking this to Foodie Friday, Sweet Tooth Friday and Full Plate Thursday!

20 comments:

  1. I just LOVE crumb cakes in any way, manner, or form. Can't get enough of the brown sugar topping! :)

    Interesting new baking group. I wish I could fine one that offers low fat, reduced sugar, GOOD FOR YOU sweet treats. Any suggestions?

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  2. This was the perfect recipe for muffins, right? Yours look wonderful.

    Thanks for baking along with me! I can't wait for your pick -- Matt told me that's his favorite cake!

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  3. They sure look good; they must melt in your mouth.
    Rita

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  4. Loving the muffins both you and Karen made.

    Joanne, why don't you join a baking group and modify the recipe to be more healthy? I'm sure others would love to read your take on it.

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  5. Oh I LOVE the idea of making these into muffins. That would be so tasty, too! YUM!

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  6. Your muffins look yummy! I'm sure the small crumbs taste just as good as big ones. How can they not with all the butter and brown sugar? :)

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  7. Love a New York Crumb! Those look perfect. I love them as muffins! Looking forward to what you bake from the Baked book.
    Have a happy 4th!

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  8. These came out so good! I love your bite-size version. I am going to do this the next time I make this! Your crumb topping looks great too - mine came out a bit to crunchy!

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  9. My cake is still in the oven. I needed a cake for tonight so I put it off a day. I made it in a 7 inch round. Let's hope it is all right. I used all the topping and it looks good. I can't wait to have a bite.

    It will be posted at http://bizzybakesb.blogspot.com.
    The Comfy Cook blog is closed down and I brought all the recipes to Bizzy.

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  10. I have had my eye on this recipe for a while. It just looks totally tasty.

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  11. The same thing happened to mine - I baked mine as cupcakes too and they spread and seemed to lose some crumb topping. :( I had piled it up very high, too!

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  12. Hi Julie,
    Your muffins looks so light and delicious. I just love that topping. Great recipe! Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and come back soon. Have a great week end!
    Miz Helen

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  13. Just so delish. I'm happy to hear your baking adventures will continue...great job Julie!

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  14. Muffins are looking like the way to go with this cake. Looks delicious...thanks for the tip on using the leftover topping with fruit. Will have to try that soon!

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  15. I can only think of one word... YUM!

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  16. Muffins take less time to bake than a much thicker cake; I usually count on 18 to 20 minutes. (Maybe longer if they're jumbo muffins.)
    Baked Explorations sounds great and I'm glad I'll be able to follow those recipes through you!

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  17. These look and sound delish! I will definitely try them.

    Pat

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  18. Great idea to turn them into muffins.

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  19. I love the idea of a baking group and I love crumb top anything!!

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  20. We loved these too Julie! They do remind me of a coffee cake. Mom used to make a version adding butterscotch pudding mix to the cake. So good!

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