No-Mixer Fruit Crumb Cake

This is Child Ish Behavior here; admittedly I can’t really cook very well. Just the other day I burned some frozen pizza in the toaster oven. And a few months ago I almost burned the house down because I left the water boiling while going out to the grocery. Luckily I got back home before all the water boiled out. All this doesn’t detract from the fact that when I was around 10 years old I used to make the best crumb cake with my mother. I can tell you without a doubt it was the best crumb cake I have tasted, ever. It was crunchy, crumby, moist, and yummy in every bite. Just writing about it is making my mouth salivate. If only I weren’t so lazy, I’d be eating crumb cake all day. Perhaps this Thursday, in preparation for Shabbos, I’ll bring back old memories and whip up some No-Mixer Fruit Crumb Cake.

The ingredients are pretty straight forward; they come right out of the Lubavitcher Cookbook. There is nothing more kosher than the Lubavitcher cookbook, from page one it tells you exactly where Kashrus falls in everyday thinking, “Kasherus belongs to a category of mitzvahs for which no rational explanation is given in the Torah. (3)” Just as Kashrus laws are God givenly good without rational explanation, so too the No-Mixer Fruit Crumb Cake, is good beyond any rational explanation, though looking back it seems my mother may have forgotten a few ingredients.

No-Mixer Fruit Crumb Cake

1.25 sticks margarine (Though if I recall correctly, I think my mother conveniently left this out.)

2 cups of flour (This is where the crumbs come from.)

1 cup sugar (for the sweet tooth)

2 teaspoons baking powder (I have no idea why this is needed. It is part of the Kosher thing, no rational explanation.)

1 teaspoon lemon rind (I believe my mother left this out as well, as I can’t imagine consuming lemon rind.)

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs separated (That means, put the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another.)

Jam (I like raspberry, you can do prune if you’re feeling especially masochistic.)

Lemon Pie filling [optional] (Definitely left out. Who has lemon pie filling lying around the house?)

2 apples, grated

Raisins (Also left out, the chewy raisins just weren’t my speed.)

Another .25cup sugar (for the sweet tooth)

And now for the directions:

Take two forks out of where ever you keep your two forks. With those two forks, Mix the first six ingredients together. Take the bowl of egg yolks, and mix into the powdery mixture until you get a crumbly consistency. Remove one cup of these crumbs, and like the Afikoman, set them aside for later.

Line a 9” X 13” baking dish with the remainder of the crumbs. Top with Jam, [lemon pie filling],(raisins), and apples.

Beat the left over egg whites and the .25cup of sugar and pour over the apples.

Add the Afikoman crumbs over the egg whites and sugar.

Bake at 350° for around 45 minutes.

Enjoy with a nice glass of Baron Herzog White Riesling Late Harvest 2005.