“Si, si, si. Crumble cake. Si.” Professor Caprese paced back and forth in the cooking lab, talking on the phone. This went on for half an hour. Finally, he hung up.
“Who was that?” I was curious.
“My cousin Laura.”
“And what did she want? I mean … With a crumble cake?” I wondered why Caprese had even used that word.
“She owns a little café in Naples and would be very happy if you sent her your crumble cake recipe. You know, that incredibly soft one with the crunchy sprinkles.” He rolled his eyes in rapture.
“My crumble cake recipe? How does your cousin know my crumble cake?” Things were getting more and more wondrous.
Caprese looked embarrassed. Then he told me everything. He had actually sent Laura half a crumble cake. Stolen from the cooking lab, wrapped in foil and sent off.
He stood in front of me with his head high in red.
“You’re a thief.”
I wasn’t mad at him, of course. My crumble cake in Naples? That flattered me. Actually, a very simple recipe. In the cooking lab, we often ate it in the afternoon. The aroma. Fluffy and soft on the inside. Crispy on the outside.
I wrote down the recipe and the professor sent it off right away.
A few days later, a couple of photos arrived in the mail from Naples in the cooking lab. Two bakers with crumble cakes in the bakery. Cousin Laura with crumble cake in hand at the café. Three crumble cakes in the small shop window: “La torta sbriciolona del Signore Grün”. I was already a little proud.
Ingredients
Note: I usually bake the mini version in a baking dish with a diameter of 15 cm. However, you can easily convert the ingredients using the Herr Grün conversion chart for baking pans. You can find it here. It’s very easy to do. You will see.
Ingredients dough
150 g 550 flour (550 flour makes the cake nice and fluffy – but I’ve also baked it with spelt flour 630 and regular flour works too and anyway…now I’m getting a little tired of typing…Actually, you just have to like the cake, then it works with any flour:-)
60 g low-fat cottage cheese (other cottage cheese also fits)
35 g sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar (you can also make it yourself. How to do it, I show here.)
50 ml milk
50 ml oil of your choice (I used olive oil)
2 lightly heaped tsp baking powder pure tartar (I use the one from Alnatura)
1 small pinch of salt
Ingredients crumble
50 g flour
50 g sugar
35 g butter
a pinch of cinnamon
Preparation curd-oil dough
Mix flour, pure tartar, sugar, vanilla sugar and salt well in a mixing bowl. Then add the remaining ingredients and mix everything well by hand and then knead a little. You want to get a nice, soft dough ball. Set it aside for a moment.
Preheat the stove to 160 degrees (convection). However, it is best to go by your experience. Every stove is different.
Preparation of crumble
Place all ingredients in a bowl and knead well until a shiny dumpling is formed.
Finish
Note: I lined the pan with baking paper and also raised it a bit higher on the edges than the pan. This way the crumble cake has more room to move upward. I like it a little higher.
Some streusel cake bakers also brush the dough a little with melted butter to make the streusel stick. I don’t do that. It may roll down quietly times a streusel:)
Press the dough onto the bottom of the pan. Note about the sprinkles: It used to say ‘form sprinkles’. I do it exactly like this: crumble the dough for the streusel in your hand and drop it on the cake. Press down lightly (just lightly!). I then drop a few smaller sprinkles over the pressed down sprinkles. (see also photo).
Have fun with the crumble cake
Herr Grün
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