Every Wednesday I go to the farmers’ market downtown and buy a half flat of berries- four blue and two raspberry- and strap them to the back of my scooter, which makes me feel like Audrey Hepburn until I catch my reflection in a passing shop window.
This method of transport is a bit rough on the raspberries making it hard to eat them straight from the box without my hands looking cartoonishly gory.
Usually I just smear the compacted berries on my Sunday waffles and call it a day but this week I went to the Wednesday farmers’ market and the one on saturday. Berries everywhere. So I baked a pie and made some experimental muffins that I ended up throwing out (Though Dad says he would have eaten them). After the muffin debacle I really needed a win so I turned to smitten kitchen’s blueberry crumb bars.
Except, it turns out, I no longer own a 9×13 pan AND I didn’t have a lemon AND I was really more in a raspberry mood than a blueberry mood AND I wanted to drop some off for my friend who is a new Momma but her mother is in town and she doesn’t eat eggs and it would be rude to deliver treats that the guest can’t have.
notes
A flax egg is ground flax combined with water and allowed to soak until it resembles a thick goo, at least 15 minutes but more is better. one part flax meal to three parts water. I read this tutorial and then went ahead and used the pre-ground flax seed I had in the fridge and didn’t refrigerate it like I was told.
This crumb cake cuts much better if completely chilled. It also keeps well in the fridge for two-three days and freezes well.
Fresh Raspberry Crumb Cakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 cups AP flour
- 8 ounces unsalted butter- that's two sticks-cold and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 4 TBS 'flax egg' see note or 1 large actual egg
- 1 TBS white balsamic vinegar I imagine the red variety would also work
- 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
- 4 tsp corn starch
- 1/4-1/2 cup sugar I like tang so I almost always cut the sugar in fruit desserts
- 2 pints 4 cups fresh raspberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375
- Grease two 9 inch cake pans and line with parchment paper
- In a large mixing bowl throughly combine 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter and then blend in the flax egg until dough is crumbly but can just come together. Pat about a 1 1/2 loose cups of the dough into each of the prepared cake pans.
- In another bowl combine the vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar, corn starch, and pepper. Once those ingredients are throughly combined toss in the raspberries until just coated. Spread the berry mixture evenly over the crust and then crumble the remaining dough over the top of the berries.
- Bake in preheated oven for about an hour or until the top is just browned. The original recipe calls for a 45 minute bake time but mine took an hour.
- Cool completely before cutting.
it looks wonderful!