The most tender German crumb cake for better coffee
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German crumb cake is so soft, not too sweet, and will likely disappear before you can even get it to a serving platter. (My son over my shoulder fact checks this statement as true.)
One of my dearest friends is from Germany, and for years she’s told me about their afternoon tradition of kaffee und kuchen (cake and coffee). I used to only think of cake as sugar-laden American style things, so the thought of eating cake EVERY SINGLE DAY was a bit shocking to me. As I’ve learned though over many years, most German and European style cakes in general are much much less sweet.
Take this German crumb cake for instance. It’s made from a springy soft yeast dough topped with a crunchy crumb topping that gives it the most satisfying texture. There’s very little sugar in the dough, and the streusel is just a little sweet from brown sugar, so eating it will not give you that post-cake sugar slump. With no German bakery near me, I came up with my own version that my kids can’t stop eating.
Better yet, you can make the streusel topping and the dough ahead of time. You can literally pull everything out and make it up for breakfast or coffee with almost no forethought. We need more of these easy to serve cakes in life!
bakingwithtradition.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a way for websites to earn advertising revenues by advertising and linking to recommended products. Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
What is German crumb cake?
German crumb cake or German streusel cake belongs to a family of yeast cakes common in central Europe. You can make them as a plain layer of yeast dough with a crumb topping, which is called stresuelkuchen. You can also add seasonal fruits, lemon zest for extra flavor or poppy seeds for variations.
Depending on what you top your crumb cake with, it will change the name of the cake, though it’s basically the same cake.
Pin the image below to your favorite Pinterest board and save the recipe for later:
Ideas for other flavors for German Crumb Cake recipes besides streusel only:
- Poppy seeds: mohnkuchen
- Plum: zwetschgenkuchen or pflaumenkuchen. You could also top it other stone fruit like our luscious Colorado peaches!
- Cherries (kirschkuchen)
- Red currants (johannisbeerkuchen),
- Berries: Blueberries(heidelbeerkuchen), blackberries (brombeerkuchen)
Basically, this recipe is super versatile, and you can use what you have (or don’t) to make an awesome cake that’s perfect for breakfast or afternoon coffee. For this recipe, I chose to top mine with berries because that’s what I had in my freezer.
Ingredients for German crumb cake
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The best German crumb cake
- Total Time: 3 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 20 pieces
Description
A light fluffy yeast dough cake covered with crunchy streusel and your favorite fruit.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 2 tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup sugar (white or brown sugar)
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 2 eggs, large, straight from the fridge
- 1 stick of butter (4 oz/ 113.5 g)
- 3 and 1/3 cups (400 g) of all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- grated zest of 1 lemon (optional)
- 1 tsp vanilla paste, vanilla extract or 2 tsp vanilla sugar
Instructions
- First make the streusel since it needs to chill. Here’s the direct recipe link.
- Next sprinkle the yeast on the warm water in a small bowl with a pinch of the sugar. Set aside for about 5 minutes until the yeast is foamy.
- Warm the milk in a small pan on the stove until you see bubbles around the edges. Cut up the butter and add it to the pan to melt.
- Crack your eggs and use a fork to whip them into the butter and milk mixture, then add in the sugar and salt and stir to combine. Check the temperature with your finger (the milk/egg mixture should be just warm to the touch.).
- Put the flour into a large bowl or your stand mixer bowl. Make a well in the center with your hands, then pour in the milk mixture then the yeast mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon to make a rough dough.
- From here, add in the vanilla and lemon zest if you’re using them.
- After that, with a dough hook on your stand mixer, beat the dough for about 5 minutes on low speed (2 on a Kitchen Aid) until you get an elastic sticky dough.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and allow to rise on the counter. If you’re working in a space with a warm room temperature, it will take the dough about 1 hour for the first rise.
- Alternatively, cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator overnight. This will give the dough a deeper flavor and cold dough is easier to work! See the recipe notes at the bottom for how to do this.
- Next, butter your sheet pan with a little soft butter and place a piece of parchment on the bottom of the pan. Rub some butter on top of the parchment as well.
- Scrape the risen dough into the prepared pan, sprinkling a little bit of flour on top.
- Use the rolling pin to roll out the dough in the pan. When the dough starts resisting, let it rest for a minute before continuing to roll it out. Do your best to roll it into one even sheet. You may need to stretch the corners a little bit. Don’t worry if it doesn’t fit the pan perfectly.
- Cover the dough again and allow to rest for 30-45 minutes.
- Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C).
- Pull out your streusel from the fridge and use a fork or spoon to break up any large clumps of crumbs.
- Arrange the fruit on top of the dough, then sprinkle dough evenly as best you can with the streusel over the fruit and dough.
- Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes or until the dough springs back in the center and the streusel has begun to turn light golden brown and slightly crispy.
- Allow to cool completely, then cut into squares and serve with a dusting of powdered sugar.
Notes
*To make the dough by hand: mix as above in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. When you have a shaggy dough, use a bench scraper to scrape down the sides of the bowl. As you scrape, fold the dough back on itself towards the center of the bowl with a slapping motion. Repeat this for about 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. It will still be sticky, but most of that will disappear as the dough rises.
**How to use refrigerated dough: the next day roll out the cold dough as described above. You will notice if you work quickly that the dough is MUCH easier to roll out than when it is at room temperature. The trade off here is that it will take a little longer to raise. I usually budget 1 hour vs. the 30 minutes when the dough is at room temp.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Additional Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Cuisine: German
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 piece
- Calories: 259
- Sugar: 12
- Sodium: 147
- Fat: 10
- Saturated Fat: 6
- Protein: 4
- Cholesterol: 44
- Flour: all-purpose flour
- yeast: instant yeast or active dry
- Milk: whole milk
- Butter
- Sugar: granulated sugar or brown sugar works
- Salt: fine sea salt or table salt
- Eggs: Large, no need for them to be at room temperature
- Vanilla: vanilla paste, vanilla extract or vanilla sugar
- Lemon zest (optional)
- Fruit (optional): cut in slices if using apples, stone fruits; cut in half for smaller fruits like cherries or strawberries, or whole for smaller berries (defrost if frozen)
- 1 recipe of streusel (see How to Make Streusel Topping)
Equipment needed for making this cake:
- stand mixer with a dough hook*
- Baking sheet pan: half size
- small bowl
- parchment paper: cut to size of the pan
- Rubber spatula or flexible dough scraper
- Small whisk or fork
- Small rolling pin (this one from Norpro is ideal, but I used this JK Adams one)
*You can make this dough by hand in a large bowl, but it is a sticky dough. Check the recipe notes for making the dough by hand.
German crumb cake (streuselkuchen) recipe step by step
Make the streusel crumb topping
First make the streusel since it needs to chill. This is something you can make ahead easily as it stores for about a week in the fridge and for up to a couple months in the freezer. You can find the recipe here or click on the image below.
Activate the yeast
Next sprinkle the yeast on the warm water in a small bowl with a pinch of the sugar. Whisk to dissolve, and set aside for about 5 minutes until the yeast is foamy.
Scald the milk
Warm the milk in a small pan on the stove until you see bubbles around the edges. Cut up the butter and add it to the pan to melt.
Usually you would set aside the butter and milk to cool so that it’s not too hot for your yeast, but I don’t like waiting!
Instead, crack your eggs and use a fork to whip them into the butter and milk mixture. If you add the eggs into this warm mixture, you rarely have to wait for the milk to cool down too much before proceeding.
Add in sugar and salt
To the eggs/butter/milk mixture, add in the sugar and salt and stir to combine.
Check the temperature of the mixture with your finger. If it’s hot to the touch still, set aside for a few minutes. The mixture should be just warm to the touch to be the best temperature for the yeast.
Make the dough
From here, put the flour into a large bowl or your stand mixer bowl. Make a well in the center with your hands, then pour in the milk mixture then the yeast mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon to make a rough dough.
From here, add in the vanilla and lemon zest if you’re using them.
After that, with a dough hook on your stand mixer, beat the dough for about 5 minutes on low speed (2 on a Kitchen Aid) until you get an elastic sticky dough.
Let the dough rise
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and allow to rise on the counter. If you’re working in a space with a warm room temperature, it will take the dough about 1 hour for the first rise.
Alternatively, cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator overnight. This will give the dough a deeper flavor and cold dough is easier to work! See the recipe notes at the bottom for how to do this.
Roll out the dough
Next, butter your sheet pan with a little soft butter and place a piece of parchment on the bottom of the pan. Rub some butter on top of the parchment as well. Buttering the parchment isn’t 100% necessary, but it will make rolling a little easier.
Alternatively, you could divide the dough in 2 and press each half into the bottom of a springform pan.
Dust a work surface with flour and use your dough scraper or a rubber spatula to turn the dough on top of the flour. Flip the dough over, then lightly flour the top of the dough.
Use the rolling pin to roll out the dough in the pan. When the dough starts resisting, let it rest for a minute before continuing to roll it out. Do your best to roll it into one even sheet. You may need to stretch the corners a little bit. Don’t worry if it doesn’t fit the pan perfectly.
Cover the dough again and allow to rest for 30-45 minutes. Here I prefer a kitchen towel over plastic wrap as it doesn’t tend to stick. In my dry Colorado air, sometimes I will spray the towel lightly with a mister water bottle.
Add the fruit and topping to the dough
Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C).
Pull out your streusel from the fridge and use a fork or spoon to break up any large clumps of crumbs. I like crumbs that are pea sized or a little bit larger.
Arrange the fruit on top of the dough, then sprinkle dough evenly as best you can with the streusel over the fruit and dough.
Bake the crumb cake
Bake the cake for 30-35 minutes or until the dough springs back in the center and the streusel has begun to turn light golden brown and slightly crispy.
Allow to cool completely, then cut into squares and serve with a dusting of powdered sugar.
