![]() ![]() The streusel will seem moist but when it bakes, it will both become crumb-like and adhere well to the cake, so you lose very little when you flip the cake out of the pan. Second, every time I make the streusel topping, I find it too buttery and soft I’m eager to add more flour to make it more crumbly but I recommend resisting because Heatter knows what she’s doing. There’s as much butter in the cake as there is in the streusel, which I see as a sign that Heatter had her priorities straight. First, while most cakes of this size use a quarter pound of butter, plus an additional quarter or eighth for the crumb, this uses half and you don’t notice any missing. There are several things about this cake that always stand out to me. Seven years ago: Quick Zucchini Saute (still make this at least once a week - including tonight!)Īdapted from Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts One year ago: Burst Tomato Galette with Corn and Zucchiniįour years ago: Nectarine Brown Butter Buckle Walking in there is like walking into quickly vanishing NYC you see depicted in movies and I hope if you’re visiting this summer, you don’t miss a chance to stop in. I’ve never come there on a hunt for a cookbook and not found it (and, oops, usually five more see above: overfilled apartment, guilty as charged). Bonnie herself is there everyday, an is not only one of the friendliest New Yorkers you’ll meet, but she knows almost everything about cookbooks. ![]() Used cookbooks: Many of Maida Heatter’s cookbooks (such as this one) are out of print, and all of them should be in your possession if you love to bake, which means this is the perfect day for me to give you an extremely (8 years, even) overdue shoutout to one of New York City’s greatest food wonders, Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, a used cookbook store in the West Village. And I’ve made another this week, just for us, because it’s so much more enjoyable to deal with life’s - or at least real estate’s - uncertainties over cake. ![]() I’ve brought this to two summer homes where we’ve been a guest, in a shameless ploy to be invited back. I made this for the kids and teachers on the last day of summer camp, because I’m a total kiss-up. Some people are indecisive enough to need seven recipes - some people have fallen hard in the past for intensely lemony yogurt loaf cakes with blueberries, buttery blueberry cakes crossed with a hint of cornbread ( in the book), straight-up boy bait and at least three others that are especially delicious with blueberries instead - but none of them have what Maida Heatter’s classic blueberry crumb does, which is a staggering amount of blueberries (even more so in my take on it), an incredible rich, plush cake from just a modicum of butter, a minimum of eggs (for the most tender crumb) and a streusel that evidences good priorities (it has as much butter as the cake it tops). ![]() My theory is that everyone needs a perfect recipe for blueberry crumb cake, or at least everyone who loves blueberries, cake, summer and making people happy with summery blueberry cakes. I realize that I sound like we’re at Stress Level: Hip Flask this week, but it’s not so bad, mostly because I’ve chosen instead to focus my energies this month on blueberry crumb cake studies. It’s a good thing, in Opposite Land, that we are not the kind of people who plan every element of a big event like a move up to a month out, with each detail, from sending the kid to his grandparents for a couple nights so he doesn’t have to watch all shh, most of his toys get boxed up, or ordering furniture to be delivered that morning, furniture we have exactly no space for in our current overfilled apartment. Did I mention the great plume of drywall dust from the doorway they’re sawing out of a wall today? Nothing that 48 hours can’t sort out, right? Theoretically, we are supposed to move this Saturday, but evidence is mounting - in the form of a kitchen without countertops or appliances, a toilet in the middle of the living room, and a peeling, black bathtub that looks like the kind place you’d find a horror movie victim - that it might not happen. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |