A Big Step Up From Your Average Coffee Cake

My mom grew up in New Jersey, and any time she meets someone else from the Garden State, she always rolls out the classic “What exit?” joke (if you know, you know). She remembers many Sunday afternoons as a kid being toted along by her mother to visit friends so the grown-ups could gossip over coffee. She mainly recalls being bored during these outings, but a saving grace was the sight of a 1950s white Entenmann’s bakery box with its classic blue script filled with New Jersey–style crumb cake.

New Jersey crumb cake and crumb buns (more on that distinction later) are hyper-regional coffee cakes that have loyal followings among locals. A typical coffee cake usually features lots of fluffy, tender cake—sometimes with a cinnamon swirl inside—with a light scattering of buttery streusel on top. But the Garden State’s take on coffee cake flips the typical ratio of cake to streusel on its head, letting the streusel steal the show. It features a thin layer of barely sweet cake as the base and an unapologetically massive layer of buttery crumbs on top. We’re talking no more than a half-inch of cake here, topped with at least a full inch of sweet crumbs. Showered with powdered sugar or drizzled with icing, it’s truly a “more is more” experience.

To build on my knowledge of the crumb bun gained from my mom, I consulted Will Tangorra, owner of The Colossal Crumb Cake Co., who I tracked down at a farmers market on the North Shore of Massachusetts, close to where I live. A New Jersey transplant, he is passionate about sharing this special cake with neophytes and fervent crumb cake fans alike.

“It’s something that you just can’t get anywhere else,” Tangorra told me. “There’s a loyal following, and there’s nostalgia with crumb cake. I see people reminiscing every week about this special summertime treat they’d get down the Jersey Shore, or after church on Sundays when they would stop at the bakery on the way home…When we would go visit family at Christmas or Thanksgiving, there would always be crumb cake for breakfast.” No pressure, then, for developing a recipe that can live up to these treasured memories.

New Jersey Crumb Cake vs. Crumb Buns

The terms “crumb cake” and “crumb buns” are used maddeningly interchangeably in recipes and on bakery menus, but as I dug into research, I did uncover a couple of key differences. While New Jersey–style crumb cake can sometimes be made with a non-yeasted yellow or sour cream cake batter, a crumb bun is traditionally and still most often yeasted. Tangorra told me that in recent times, many bakeries have switched to using a batter cake base for ease and speed. but some older, more traditional Jersey-based bakeries still use a bun base made from an enriched yeasted dough (like the kind you might use for a cinnamon bun) that bakes up fluffy and airy yet sturdy enough to hold up the crumb layer. 

This tradition of using a yeasted cake base originates with German immigrants who opened bakeries in the New York and New Jersey area, sharing an array of yeasted cakes that are common in Germany. Over time, those cakes morphed into the crumb buns that are known and loved today, and institutions like Styertowne Bakery in Clifton, Mueller’s Bakery in Bay Head, and B&W Bakery in Hackensack continue to produce them, with fierce and loyal followings. 

One other difference: Crumb buns are cut into generously-sized squares and served individually, versus as a whole sheet cake. Each square is doused with a thick shower of confectioners’ sugar or drizzled with icing to put this treat up and over the top. I decided to stick with tradition and make the yeasted dough “bun” version of this recipe so the cake would be sturdy enough to support the crumble topping and tangy enough to contrast all of the sweetness.

As for those crumbs, no matter whether they’re atop a cake or a bun, I’ve been told by New Jersey–born family members and professional bakers alike in no uncertain terms that they should be very soft, cohesive, and loaded with brown sugar and cinnamon flavor. Between a yeasted dough base and a tall order of crumbs, I had my work cut out for me to recreate this beloved treat at home.

The Yeasted Cake

The yeasted cake base for my crumb buns came together fairly easily, using a typical formula for enriched bread dough that incorporates milk, egg, and softened butter along with flour, yeast, salt, and a little bit of sugar. Some traditional recipes include a nod to lemon flavor in the cake, and others do not. The lemon zest is optional here, so go with whatever you prefer! I personally like to include it, as it gives the buns a pleasant tartness that complements the sweet topping. 

Kneading the dough with the dough hook in a stand mixer gives it a stretchy consistency that bakes up tender yet sturdy—perfect for holding up a thick layer of crumbs. I scaled the recipe to make just enough to cover the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Make sure to use a metal pan rather than a ceramic dish for best results. To avoid a sticky mess when shaping, I recommend wetting your hands with water before patting and stretching the tacky dough out into the pan. And letting the dough rise right in the pan, instead of proofing in a separate bowl, means one less bowl to clean, streamlining the process. Yeasty, tangy, and just barely sweet, this thin cake layer was a balanced foil for the streusel on top.

Perfecting the Crumb Topping

Perfecting the crumbs, on the other hand, proved to be quite a challenge. Most of the recipes I found in my research called for simply mixing together sugar (usually a combination of white and brown), flour, and cinnamon with melted butter in a bowl. I loved the simplicity of this technique, but the crumbs made this way consistently turned out crunchy and crisp (not what I wanted). I knew from talking with my friend Carolyn Grillo—a NJ native, crumb bun enthusiast, and professional baker—that the topping needed to be velvety-soft, cohesive, and easy to pinch off into pillowy morsels. I tested various ratios of butter and sugar, adding cornstarch to the flour, using cake flour, using confectioners’ sugar instead of granulated, and even using all brown sugar, but batch after batch, the crumbs remained too crisp.

I was stumped until I circled back with Will Tangorra. He mentioned seeing a YouTube recipe video for crumb cake in which the crumb topping was creamed with softened butter rather than stirred together using melted butter. Eyeing my now-empty mixer bowl, I cleaned it out after making the dough, switched over to the paddle, and creamed softened butter with equal parts white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. After mixing in the flour, I had a cookie dough–like mixture that squeezed together easily into chunks that I could break up and scatter into pebbly pieces over the dough. Eureka! The resulting buns had a soft, cohesive layer of crumbs with an ideal melt-in-your-mouth texture.

Showered with confectioner’s sugar just before serving, these crumb buns will transport you to the heart of Jersey–no Turnpike or Parkway tolls required.