The love of crumb cake runs deep in my family. You might know it as coffee cake, streusel, or—as my dad calls it—crumb buns, but no matter the name, I want a slice. Inexplicably, I hate making crumb topping. Whipping up a cake batter is fine, but the mixture of sugar, flour, and butter destined for the top of the cake irritates me to no end. Instead of bothering with that, I crumble up some cookies and sprinkle them on top.
Coating your cake in cookie crumbles isn’t the same as coating it in the thick, brown sugar layer you’ll find on a New Jersey crumb bun, but it does create a similar effect, with a few bonuses. Classic crumb toppings use a load of butter and brown sugar, and you might not have enough of either ingredient to make one if you’re baking on a whim. Making a one-ingredient cookie crumb topping allows you to use any cookie hanging out in your pantry, without adding any extra butter, sugar, or flour.
While the average crumb topping is flavored with cinnamon, using crushed cookies means you can change up the flavor profile with white chocolate macadamia cookies, graham crackers, chocolate chip cookies, ginger snaps, peanut butter cookies, or oatmeal raisin cookies. Furthermore, you can use the crumbs to create a streusel-like ribbon. Add a layer of fine cookie crumbs to the center of the batter, and it will absorb some moisture from the mixture and soften into flavorful stripe that runs through the cake. (Taking things too far is where I really excel.)
Pouring the second half of the batter over the center layer of cookie crumbs.Photo: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
You can add cookie crumbs to a cake, loaf, or muffins. I made a banana loaf with gingersnap crumbs and a center streusel layer. I used the fine crumbs from the bottom of the container, and crushed up about six more cookies in a food processor to make a half cup of crumbs, but you can use whichever crushing method you prefer, including your hands, or a rolling pin. If you don’t want a stripe in the center, skip it; it’s completely optional. For the top, I loosely broke up another handful of cookies to make about a cup of medium-to-small pieces.
Top layer of large and small cookie crumbles.Photo: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
To assemble the cookie crumb cake, prepare the batter as you normally would, and pour half of it into a prepared pan. For the center cookie-stripe, sprinkle the fine crumbs over the batter in an even layer. Top the crumbs with the second half of the batter and smooth it out gently. Scatter any remaining fine crumbs, along with the bigger pieces all over the surface of the cake. Bake in a preheated oven according to your recipe’s directions. Halfway through the bake time, loosely tent the loaf pan with foil to prevent the cookie crumbs from over-browning.
Photo: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
My boxed-mix banana loaf with gingersnap crumb baked up proudly, and stretched out the crumb layer, making rather attractive breaches in the topping. The cookie layer in the center was exciting to see. The fine crumbs fully softened and joined together to form a pretty and tasty stripe. With only the best crumb cake eating form, I make sure to get each bite of soft cake with some of the crunchy, sugary, ginger topping. This is harder to do with a slice of loaf cake, but that’s what the center layer is for. I’m eager to try this again with a fruity cake and lemon cookies, and urge you to play around with combinations, letting your pantry of half-eaten cookies be your guide.
