Pumpkin Apple Crumb Cake

Piled high with streusel, this is Jersey-style crumb cake, Autumn-style.

Let’s establish a few facts:

• The best crumb cake is from New Jersey

• It’s the chonky nuggets of streusel that set New Jersey crumb cake apart

• So-called New York crumb cake is really just Jersey crumb cake that moved to the city to be closer to great theater.

With that now on the record:

I took all my favorite fall things (save for the sound and smell of crunching through a large pile of orange and yellow leaves) and put them in one cake.

So, today’s offering is a lightly-spiced, tender pumpkin cake, topped with sweet and tart apples and heaps and piles and crumbles of lightly spiced, brown-sugar rich tender-yet-at-times crunchy streusel.

(No thesauri were injured in the making of that sentence.)

Let’s do this!

After the recipe, you’ll find an important question about the upcoming possible encounters with the law the former “president” has ahead of him.

A note on apples: Use what you have around. Go for a mix if you have them to balance sweet and tart flavors. You are forbidden from using Macintosh. (White, mealy-mouthed mush, like much of Trump’s legal staff.)

Another Note: Being a paid subscriber helps buy groceries, supports the development of these recipes and could allow me to stay freelance. If you have the ability to pay, I would be very grateful. Thanks.

Pumpkin Apple Streusel Crumb Cake

83.3KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Printable recipe!

Download

Pumpkin Apple Streusel Crumb Cake

(and yes, I’m looking into getting a printable format for this! thanks for your patience.)

You’ll need a 9 x 2” square or round cake pan

What You’ll Need:

For the streusel:

1 stick butter

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cup flour

For the apple layer:

2 tablespoons butter

1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice

3 to 4 apples, peeled and chopped into pieces (should be about 1/4 inch thick, size is up to you, but bite-size is recommended

For the cake:

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup neutral vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 cup (7.5 ounces) pureed pumpkin (I like Libby’s, cuz never watery)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon (heaping) of cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup water

What You’ll Do:

MAKE THE STREUSEL:

Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl. While the butter is still warm, add the brown and white sugar, the cinnamon, salt and flour. Mix together until the color is a uniform light brown. It will be a giant clump. Do not fret. Crumble will happen.

COOK THE APPLES:

In a small sauté pan, melt the butter. Add the chopped apples and lemon and cook until just tender and glistening. The idea is to par-cook them, not turn them to mush. Set aside.

MAKE THE CAKE:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter your baking tin. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, vegetable oil, eggs and pumpkin until blended.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and ginger.

3. Fold in half the flour mixture. Then gently mix in half the water. Repeat with the remaining flour and water. The addition of water feels v. splooshy, but I swear it incorporates. Just don’t overmix or else tough cake.

4. Add the batter to the prepared pan and smooth evenly. Top with the apples (Using your hands is easiest). Then crumble up the streusel into large and small pieces and artistically, maniacally (whatever suits you), cover every inch of the top of the cake. The key is to get a variety of different shapes and sizes.

5. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the center is set, a toothpick comes out clean of cake and the top is lightly browned.

6. Let cool on the counter. Nice eaten at any temperature except burning hot.

Now for today’s million dollar question:

This week saw the former so-called “president” deposed in the E. Jean Carroll case, subpoenaed by the Jan 6 Committee, among other legal happenings down Mar-a-Lago way.

We could lay some interesting odds about whether he’ll show up for the Jan 6 Committee, whether he’ll release the requested documents; whether he’ll assert his fifth amendment right; how much money he’ll raise off this and … what will happen to him if he doesn’t do any of those things…

What do YOU think we’ll happen. If it’s cathartic, you can put what you’d LIKE to see happen, and then tell me what you think will really happen. (Is that a sad trombone sound I hear?)

ps: E Jean is Queen of All She Surveys, and if you don’t follow her already on substack, please do! You won’t regret it.