How to Make New Jersey Crumb Buns

Hosts Julia Collin Davison and Bridget Lancaster make the ultimate New Jersey Crumb Buns.

ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America's Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.

If you like us, follow us:

[mohammedcohen]

...I agree about NJ crumb buns...been living here in SO Fl since Aug, '79 and no one...NO ONE...knows what I'm talking about when I say 'crumb buns'...except for a rare Italian Bakery (most of the owners are also refugees from the twin People's Demokratic Republiks of NY & NJ) where the make them only during 'the season (roughly from Nov to the middle of May)...when I was a kid growing up in Fort Lee, NJ every Sunday after Mass my dad would go to Preschle's bakery next to his store on Main St. and get a dozen crumb buns for breakfast...if we three boys were 'good' (i.e. got good report cards) we got the crumbs that day...getting the fdrumbs was a rare occasion for us...

[KQOAmericanLady]

One of my favorites when I treat myself with a cup of coffee ☕️ I didn’t know this was on Youtube. So happy to see America’s Test Kitchen on the Tube

[dsoules]

I worked at a bakery at the jersey shore and this recipe is pretty spot on just try making 60 trays of it per day 😂😂

[rochelleb]

I love this. As a new Jerseyian, I can tell you, it's so delicious

[kouklakee]

Love you two Ladies ! Thank you for this recipes ! I’m from NY so we called it New York Crumb Cake but thanks for clarifying as to why it’s called NJ Crumb Cake !

[dannyhardesty]

Looks authentic to me! (Teaneck, New Jersey--1965-1968). Thanks for the recipe!

[ItsJustLisa]

I am so glad I have ATK 20 Years cookbook! I need to mark this recipe.

[misscndnwoman]

Do people really have to comment things that don't matter. Really you girls are the best 🌹🙏

[misscndnwoman]

✔ done. Well I tell you now it is beautiful, everything Julia said from the start. It's amazing honestly

[annegazda]

The best crumb cake in NJ is B&W in Hackensack!!!

[XjtBA]

I remember Crumb Buns from my childhood in the Bronx.

[suevee]

I am from New Jersey and I tell you these are THE REAL DEAL!!!

[AmandaLander]

Reminds me of Drake’s Coffee Cakes. I’m definitely going to try this, because it looks easy enough that the kids can help!

[barbarahodges]

Delicious I love your cooking show on Create”. I will try this recipe!

[wendyellis]

Just the way I remember as a child in the 1960s and ‘70s, in Harvey Cedars, on Long Beach Island. Can’t bring myself to call it “LBI.” 😉

[rettaconnelly]

The cake here is made in a glass 9x13 pan. I wish they had said if it was necessary as I only have a metal pan.

[GrilledTofu]

Could go for some b&w bakery right now

[judithaudin]

The recipe came out in an earlier CC magazine (sorry, I don't have the date) and I made it then. So yummy! Very much like what I grew up with outside NYC.

[robertprehatney]

Entenmanns crumb cake has been my standard for years. This is on schedule for the weekend!

[brilliantatbreakfast]

I'm always looking for a true copycat of the heavy crumb cake from B&W Bakery in Hackensack, NJ. What makes theirs different from everyone else's is that it has only a very thin layer of cake (very little rising) and a texture more like a stretchy bread than a cake, flavored with a tiny bit of lemon. The crumb-to-cake height ratio should be about 3-1, and some of the clumps should be larger. There are really two types of NJ crumb cake/crumb buns. There's what I call "bagel shop crumb cake", which has a pretty good ratio of crumbs to cake, but the cake is very cake-y and very sweet...and almost greasy feeling after you take the plastic wrap off that they sell it in. It's tasty, but VERY sweet. What makes B&W cake so special is that it's NOT very sweet and even the crumbs, despite all the sugar, aren't cloyingly sweet.

I used to get them all the time for about 8 bucks. Now I live 500 miles away and I can only get them through Goldbelly at 40 bucks a pop. That's why I want a real-deal copycat recipe. The ones I've tried just aren't quite there.