Another day of darkness is upon us. Summer rapidly shed her robes for Fall this year and here we are, dreary, dreary days with temps in the 60s with a chill that gets right into your bones when it was in the mid 80s, sunny, and humid just days before. Yup, this is New England.
Crummy days make it hard to feel motivated. Projects find themselves sitting on the back burner while you curl up in bed with a good book or movie instead, drifting in and out of consciousness. You start to wonder–is it your imagination, or has SAD sunken in already? Will the sun ever return?
What you need is some sort of artificial source of sunlight in your life. I don’t mean one of those UV lamps that you see ads for in Sunday newspaper fliers and on TV. You need something that is sure to chase away the miasma, bringing you back to your happy, productive self. Something buttery, cinnamony, and oh-so-good. Something like Crumb Cake Cookies.
The best part of crumb cake is, of course, the crumb topping. The cake generally is hit or miss and usually you can live without it. But if the crumb topping is any good at all, you want to surround yourself in its cinnamony goodness and eat it for every meal of every day. It is akin to the muffin top: the best part of the baked good that you wish you could eat alone.
No need to worry about what to do with the stumps, thanks to Olla-Podrida! Her ingenious idea of turning the crumb topping into a cookie should earn her some sort of award. Why didn’t I think of this before? The dough comes together quickly and easily, there are no eggs (great for those with allergies), and in no time, you can have the best part of coffee cake without having to worry about waste.
Just try not to eat the whole batch while chasing away the rainy day blues, okay? I’ll try, too.
Crumb Cake Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup 16 Tbsp Kerrygold butter, cold and cut into cubes
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour
- 1/3 cup vanilla sugar
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
- 2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 pinches fine sea salt
- 1 tsp powdered sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Gather 2 cookie baking sheets and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add all ingredients and mix (first on low power, proceeding gradually to medium power) for several minutes. The dough with go through several stages: first dry, then crumbly, eventually coming together in a ball, cleaning the sides of the bowl. Remove from stand mixer.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, portion out dough and flatten between the palms of your hands. You should be able to fit 12 of them per cookie sheet.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes, then remove from oven and let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if so desired. (I chose not to.)
Brillant! I bookmarked this recipe- can’t wait to try it! Yum!!
-Miriam
This looks really delicious! I’ve yet to try baking a cake, and I will try this too.
Crumb cake cookies…you are a genius! What a brilliant and DIVINE looking recipe 🙂
I wish I could take the credit for coming up with the original idea, but it’s a fabulous one, isn’t it?! Why waste your calories on the cake when all you want is the crumb anyway? 🙂
i love this idea! and isn’t Kerrygold butter the BEST? So incredible.
I don’t get to buy it often, but Kerrygold is my butter of choice. It makes such a difference! Though usually, since it’s such a hard commodity to come by in our house, it’s hidden away, saved for savoring on fresh bread.
These look like perfect after lunch snacks! Happy Baking!
I’m glad you got a chance to make them! Aren’t they the best? Mine are already gone, alas, but I’ll be making them again with different variations. I love the almond flavor, so I’m going to try them with some almond paste the next time. Stay tuned!
Fantastic cookies! Thanks for the great idea!