Starbucks Copy Cat Chai Tea Concentrate

My boyfriend loves Starbucks chai tea and buys the Tazo chai tea concentrate. Well, that stuff is expensive. Not as expensive as buying one at Starbucks, but expensive none the less. Sometimes I can get the concentrate on sale at Target for 2 for $6.00, but that's about the best deal out there that I've seen. I've tried other brands and he doesn't like them. They were too spicy, too sweet, not spicy enough, too weak or just off. I finally found Tazo Chai Tea DECAF. I had no idea that decaf would be so hard to find. Once I found it I was on a quest to find the perfect sweetness and strength.

I tried at least three different versions before getting it to where he liked it. It's definitely cheaper than buying the concentrate. You're paying a lot for water when you buy it that way. Now that it's getting warmer, he won't drink it as much, but now I'm prepared for this Autumn.

Starbucks Copy Cat Chai Tea Concentrate

Yield: 2 cups, or 4 cups chai tea mixed with milk
Prep Time: 2 minutes, plus steeping 
Cook Time: 3 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
3 Tazo Chai Tea Bags
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons honey
2 cups water

Directions
Boil three tea bags in two cups of water on the stove or in the microwave for two minutes. Let steep for 10 minutes until dark brown. Add two teaspoons of honey and two teaspoons of sugar and stir until dissolved. To make a Chai Tea Latte, add 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup concentrate and heat until desired temperature. Or chill and serve over ice.

Enjoy!

Homemade Ketchup

First let me say that I love Heinz ketchup. I really don't care for other brands a whole lot. They are too sweet, spicy, vinegary, etc. I can tell the difference. I think I might be one of those super tasters. Seriously, my sense of taste is on overload. So why would I make my own? For shits and giggles really. I wanted to see how hard it was and what it tasted like. The recipe I used had a lot of good reviews and took all day in the crock pot. Before my boyfriend tasted it, he told me that he probably wouldn't like it. He's a Heinz guy too.

I followed the directions almost exact with a few spice exceptions. I didn't have dried mustard or celery salt on hand, so I just didn't add those. Several reviews said that it was too sweet, but I used the amount it called for. After I made it and it cooled, I tasted it by itself and it did taste a little sweet, but when I tasted it with some fries, it was fine. Rather tasty in fact. Better than I thought it would. I honestly didn't have high expectations, so I was surprised.

The whole house smelled like ketchup, so I was craving french fries all day. It takes 12 hours and needed to cool, so I had to wait until the next day.

I've made fries several times since I first made the ketchup and today the consensus was that it was really good and definitely could take on the big boys in a taste test.

This recipe is easy to make, but does take 12 hours in the crock pot and needs a stir once in a while, so it's best to be home or don't go out for too long if you plan to make it. Do plan on having french fries the following day!

Update: We ran out and had to buy some. My boyfriend said that he actually preferred mine. Woo hoo! Go me. Or the person who actually developed this recipe, which I found on All Recipes. 

Ketchup
Yield: Three cups
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 12 hours
Total Time: 12 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

2 (28 ounce) cans peeled ground tomatoes
1/2 cup water, divided
2/3 cup white sugar
3/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
1/8 teaspoon mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1 whole clove
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions

Pour ground tomatoes into slow cooker. Swirl 1/4 cup water in each emptied can and pout into slow cooker. Add sugar, vinegar, and spices; whisk to combine. 

Cook on high, uncovered, until mixture is reduced by half and very thick, about 10 -12 hours. Stir every hour or so.

Smooth the texture of the ketchup using an emersion blender, about 20 seconds. 

Ladle the ketchup into a fine strainer and press mixture with the back of the ladle to strain out any skins and seeds. 

Transfer the strained ketchup to a bowl. Cool completely before tasting to adjust salt, black pepper, or cayenne pepper. 

Super Simple Crusty Bread

This is by far the easiest bread I've made and I don't think bread is all that hard to make. Time consuming, yes, hard, no. Other than waiting, this bread isn't even that time consuming. After reading about this bread, I've also discovered that I'm about 6-10 years late in the food blogging world. It's generally called no-knead bread and supposedly it appeared in the NY Times for the first time.  It's made its rounds over and over again and yet somehow I seemed to have missed it. Maybe that's because I wasn't baking as much bread as I do now, who knows. The point is, I'll be making this bread a whole lot more from now on.

It's perfect for dipping in olive oil and making panini or just as toast with melted butter on it. I'm starting to salivate. I'd be noshing on a piece right now if we hadn't finished it the other night with dinner. I do think this bread is best eaten the day you make it or the next. As with most homemade items without preservatives, it goes bad quickly. Plus it loses that outer crustiness. Unless you warm it up in the oven or toaster, like I did. (I put it in the toaster at 200° for about 12-15 minutes to warm it up and it turned out great.)

I don't own a cast iron pot, (the key to crusty bread) so I borrowed one from a friend, but I'm definitely going to be checking out the sales, because I must purchase one to make my life easier. I've read all different ways you can "make" your own using a pizza stone, crockpot insert, pot of water, terra cotta pot, etc. The list goes on. I honestly just don't want to bother with that. Although I do have a Pyrex that I might try. As long as what you are using can withstand 450°, you can use it. The other important thing here is that it must have a lid. The lid creates steam and therefore makes the bread crusty. Or at least that's what I read somewhere on the internet and we all know that everything we read online must be true.

It takes a whopping five minutes to put this bread together. Then let it sit. 12-18 hours. I find it's best to make it at night and then bake it the next day. The smell of freshly baked bread wafting throughout the house is fantastic. So far, I've only made it twice and both times it turned out great. I really want to add in some extras like rosemary and garlic with parmesan on top. Or cheddar and jalapenos. Maybe get a little fancy and add lemon zest, nutmeg and gruyere. I tend to go savory with a bread like this, but I guess you could also go sweet and add cinnamon, sugar and currants. Regardless what you add, I have a feeling it will be fabulous.

My boyfriend has already decided that I need to make this bread at least two days a week. He's a bit of a carb-aholic. He also said that of the tortillas, white bread and chips.

So how do you make this wonderful bread? I've read different resting times and different amounts of yeast, but this is what I did and it worked beautifully. Please let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

Super Simple Crusty Bread
Yield: One loaf
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 12 - 18 hours including proofing

Ingredients
3 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups water
1 3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

Directions
In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and yeast. Add water and combine until shaggy. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a dry, warm environment for 12-18 hours. Dough will be full of bubbles and very wet.

Lightly flour a work surface and turn out dough. Work into a ball and cover for thirty minutes minimum. I used plastic wrap, but some like to use a flour sack. The flour sack will help it retain it's shape better.

Heat oven to 450°. Heat pot for about 30 minutes and carefully remove it. After dough has rested, drop it into the pot and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from pot and cool on wire rack. 

Enjoy!

Browned Banana Bread

What's browned banana bread you ask? It's not some new fancy schmancy way of making banana bread. It's just regular banana bread that you accidentally left in the oven a few minutes too long because the weather finally broke and you were outside playing with your son. Despite that in my perfectionist mind, it was overdone, it didn't seem to stop any of us from eating it. It was still quite good.

I don't think this recipe is as good as the banana muffins, but it's labeled as low fat and it's a bit easier to make, since it has a few less ingredients. It's a little heavier, but does transport well and freeze well. I have made a few adjustments to it over the years and added pumpkin to it when I only had two small bananas. That was delicious. I used four really old bananas for this. Most people would have surely thrown these in the trash. When my bananas start to turn, I try to freeze them for smoothies. Try being the key word here. It's like one day, they look perfectly good to eat and then you forget you have them and the next thing you know, you've got black bananas. The darker the bananas the sweeter they are. So, dark bananas work really well in baked goods.

I prefer walnuts in my banana bread, but I only had about a 1/4 cup, so I just put them on top instead of in the batter. Plus, it looks pretty. I like my food to not only taste good, but to look pretty.

Banana Bread
Adapted from Betty Crocker

Yield: 2 loaves
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour (cool 2 hours 10, minutes)
Total time: 1 hour and 15 minutes, plus cooling

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
4 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/ 2 whole milk
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Heat oven to 350° and move oven racks to lowest position. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans, 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 or one 9 x 5 x3 loaf pan with butter.

2. Combine milk with vinegar and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour. Mix butter and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Stir in bananas, "soured" milk, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt until moistened. Stir in nuts. Divide batter evenly between pans.

3. Bake 8 inch loaves for about an hour and 9 inch loaf about an hour and 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on wire rack.

4. Loosen sides of loaves from pans: remove pans and place top side up on wire rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature for up to 4 days, or refrigerate for up to 10 days. Can also be frozen for up to two months.

Enjoy!

Roasted Vegetable Panini

I'm not a big meat eater. I never have been and I never will be. I don't like burgers. I know for all of you burger loving fans out there, it's an atrocity. And for all of you vegans and vegetarians, you're probably loving it. But I never understood that whole burger craving. I crave peanut butter and chocolate. Never a burger. They always smell good, but I never like the taste of them. To me they are like coffee. The smell and the flavor are completely different. Once my former husband thought he could convince me that I would like them if he put all my favorite fixings one them, grilled mushrooms,  onions, and cheddar cheese. I took one bite and said that it would be great if the ground beef patty weren't there. I do like chicken, but sometimes I just don't want meat. Any meat at all.

In walks my vegetable panini. Not only is this an easy panini that can be made several different ways, but the house smells great while they are roasting. If you haven't noticed my most sensitive senses are my sense of smell and taste. My boyfriend is always commenting that it's not normal that I can smell garbage that is sealed in a plastic bag in the trash can or someone smoking a cigarette on the highway with the windows rolled up in the car in front of us. It's my spidey sense. I can't help it. As you know your sense of smell goes along with your sense of taste. I think I might be one of those super tasters.

Back to making the panini. First things first is deciding what veggies you like. I prefer eggplant, zucchini or squash, onions, mushrooms, red peppers and tomatoes. Unfortunately I didn't have all of those ingredients on hand, but I did have several. I had never put roasted tomatoes on a sandwich before, so I wasn't sure how it was going to taste. Wait, let me back up. I've used the oil packed kind and the dry packed ones from the store, but never ones I actually roasted. Usually when I make roasted veggies, I don't add tomatoes. Well, from now on it's a must. It totally made the sandwich. Without them, it would have just been blah.

Roasted Vegetable Panini

Yield: depends on how many vegetables you roast
Prep time: 20-30 minutes
Cook time: two hours 
Total time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Ingredients

Roasted Vegetables

Eggplant
Grape tomatoes
Zucchini/ squash
Onion
Red Pepper
Portabella mushroom
Garlic
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Rosemary
Oregano
Sage
Salt and pepper

2 Slices of bread of your choice (I used a garlic loaf, but a sourdough would be great)

Basil pesto
Mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 250°.

2. Slice the vegetables and place on a cookie sheet (or two). Try not to over lap. Sprinkle on spices and olive oil. Bake for two hours.

3. Spread pesto on one side of a slice of bread. Top with vegetables, cheese and other slice.

4. Grill over medium heat until golden brown and cheese has melted or put in your panini press.

Enjoy!

White Fish with Sun-dried Tomato Pesto

Years ago friends of mine made this for dinner. I'm not sure if it came out of a cookbook or something he just came up with on his own. Either way, it was good. I immediately asked for the recipe. I've made several different versions of it depending on what I had on hand and depending on the type of fish I've had. I've made it with and without the parsley, used a packaged basil pesto when I didn't have fresh basil on hand, and one time added a bit too much garlic. I think I tasted that version for days. 

The pesto  recipe makes enough for 4-6. Even when I cut it in half, it makes at least enough for 3-4. It calls for you to add the fish stock to the pesto. Because it makes so much, I usually just put it in half and save the other half for sandwiches or panini. I almost never have leftover fish, but I almost always have leftover pesto. You could always quarter the recipe, but that's too much math for me. 

I've used tilapia, flounder, cod and bass for this recipe and it always turns out good. Tilapia is cheap and can be found in almost every grocery store. Honestly sometimes I think it tastes like dirt and without a good cover I really don't like it. This pesto magically turns it into something absolutely delicious. It also doesn't take that long to make and it feels like a gourmet meal. I paired it with parmesan roasted potatoes and garlic asparagus. By far, the bass was the best. It was also the most expensive. 

If you are trying to add cold water fish to your diet, which some doctors recommend three times per week, this is a good option. It's also great for company, since it seems so fancy.

White Fish with Sun-dried Tomato Pesto
Yield: 4-6
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min

Ingredients: 

Fish
4-6 fillets of white fish
3-4 stalks scallions or one medium onion, sliced
Zest of one lemon or orange
1/4 white wine
1 teaspoon fresh oregano
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter

Pesto
1 cup hot water
1/4 extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes (I prefer oil packed, but dry packed works too)
1/2 cup roasted almonds
1/2 cup chopped basil
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup fish stock

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. 

Fish

2. Rinse fish and pat dry with a paper towel. Place in a baking dish. Top with onions/scallions.  Sprinkle with oregano, salt and pepper. Zest the lemon/orange on top. Add wine and olive oil. Break butter into bits and place on top of fish. Bake until flaky. 

Pesto

3. Blend extra virgin olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, almonds, garlic and hot water until pulverized. After the fish is done, add fish stock and stir in basil and parsley. 

Either make a bed with the pesto and place fish on top or place fish on the plate and top with the pesto. 

Enjoy!

Grilled Chicken Avocado Sammie

This is one of my favorite sanwiches. Chewy bread with a quick homemade sundried tomato pesto and fresh avocado really make this sandwich mouth watering. Add some mozzarella cheese and it's a little piece of heaven in your mouth.

I say grilled, but really it's more like pan fried chicken. It's too cold for me to grill, but this weekend it's supposed to finally warm up. I'm ready for spring. Better yet, give me low 80's with low humidity. If you can, grill the chicken. It makes it that much better.

I think the messier the sandwich the better it is. It always seems that way anyhow. On a napkin scale, I think it was a solid three. The ripe avocado has a tendency to slip out just as you are taking a bite. Of course you could always use a softer bread, but I really like the chewiness of this bread. A ciabatta would work really well.

I sliced the chicken thin or you can pound it out if you need to get rid of some aggression. Sprinkle with oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, rosemary, sage, salt and pepper. Cook on medium high heat until golden brown.

The pesto can't get much easier. Blend the sun-dried tomatoes with a few fresh basil leaves until pulverized in a blender, food chopper or bullet. I use my bullet almost every day. I love it for pestos, smoothies, grinding spices and even egg shells for the garden.

What I did:

Grill the chicken with the following spices:
Oregano
Onion Powder
Rosemary
Sage
Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper

Blend about 5-6 oil packed sun-dried tomatoes with about three to four large fresh basil leaves until pulverized in a blender. (This is enough for one to two sandwiches depending on how thick you spread it on the bread.)

Spread the pesto on the bread, then the mozzarella (use the fresh if you can..it's so much better), chicken and about a half of an avocado.

Enjoy!

The Best Homemade Granola, Period.

Granola is expensive to buy and it's so easy to make at home. Plus it makes your house smell so good. I've experimented with several recipes and this is by far my favorite. I like it nutty, just like me. It seems to keep well in an airtight container for a few weeks. At least that's all it seems to last in our house.

I love to put it on organic vanilla yogurt. It's also a good way to add flax into your diet. It has more omega three's than salmon (per serving) and a good amount of fiber in it to keep you feeling full longer. If you like coconut, then you'll like using coconut oil instead of vegetable oil or butter in this recipe. It gives it that slight coconut flavor without being overpowering.

Ingredients

5 cups of oats
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup chopped raw almonds
1 cup coconut
2 tablespoon ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut oil
2/3 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350°. Toast the oats on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes stirring at 5 minutes. While the oats are toasting, heat the coconut oil and maple syrup on low until coconut oil is liquid. Take off the heat and add vanilla. Put the oats in a big bowl, add nuts, coconut, flax seeds, salt and cinnamon. Pour the wet ingredients on top. Mix well. Put everything back on the cookie sheet and bake for 25 - 30 minutes stirring every 10 minutes. Let cool and store in an airtight jar.

Enjoy!

Chai Cookies

My boyfriend loves chai tea. It's his go to drink when it's cold out. He's not a coffee drinker at all and only somewhat of a tea drinker, but chai tea is a whole other story. Granted, I like it, but I don't want it all the time. While dreaming up new varieties of cookies, I thought why not chai cookies.

I wanted these cookies to be soft and chewy, not hard like some brittle sugar cookie you get at the grocery store in those see though plastic containers. I did a little research and came up with the perfect chai cookie. Seriously, they are that good. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to photograph them, they way my son and boyfriend were eating them. I think it would be a really good vanilla cookie too, without the chai spices.

It was trial and error with the spices. I didn't want it to be overpowering, but I wanted it to taste like chai. I thought I might have to make a few batches to get it right, but the stars were aligned and they turned out perfect. I tasted the dough to get an idea of what they would taste like and I couldn't stay out of it.  You should never eat raw cookie dough if it has raw eggs in it. It's bad for you. Very bad.

Chai Cookies

Yield: 24 - 30 medium sized cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: About 10 minutes

Total Time: 3+ hours including chilling the dough

Ingredients

1 cup AP flour

3/4 cup bread flour

3/4 light brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cardamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°

2. Beat butter, brown sugar, vanilla and egg in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with a spoon. In a separate bowl mix together the remaining dry ingredients. Stir flour mixture into wet ingredients. 

3. Roll into 3/4 inch balls and place about three inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. 

4. Bake approximately 10 minutes without opening the oven door (See photo below). Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. 

Enjoy!

5 Minute Pizza Sauce

This is the easiest, tastiest pizza sauce you can make in under five minutes. Not to mention cheaper than that stuff in a jar. And, you know what is in it. A plus for me, since I mostly try to avoid processed food when at all possible. I try to buy organic when I can, aka when the budget allows. 

This is generally my go to pizza sauce when I haven't made my oven-dried tomato pizza sauce. I'll try to post that one soon. That's also easy to make, but takes about 2 hours to bake. If you have fresh basil, you can add a few leaves to the sauce or tear the leaves and put them on top of the cheese. Don't you love the smell of fresh basil? 

Easy Pizza Sauce

makes enough for two 12" pizzas

1 cup fire roasted tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

pinch of garlic

Using a blender, on high, blend until well combined. About a minute. 

Enjoy!

Lace Cookies

I have a huge notebook full of recipes that I have cut out of magazines and I've only made a few of the recipes. I've made it a goal to start making them and organizing them. They are currently a huge mess. At one point in time, they were well organized. But then a certain three year old found it and in seconds, it was a mess. Needless to say, I haven't re-organized it. I have, however, put it up high out of reach of little hands. Lesson learned. Do you have recipes cut out of magazines? Are they neatly in a notebook or folder or a complete mess like mine?

I've been eying these cookies for some time now and finally decided to make them. You'll like the crispiness of this buttery cookie. When cooked until crisp, they melt in your mouth, but when slightly undercooked, they are chewy and tend to stick to your teeth for what seems like hours. 

These were fairly easy to make and will make a nice addition to my Christmas cookies this year. I would list these under candy instead of a cookie because of it's brittle like texture and toffee taste. 

The nuttiness from the pecans and the toffee like texture would pair well with a rich coffee ice cream. Or you could offset the sweetness with a steaming cup of tea. 

Lace Cookies adapted from RealSimple, Sara Quessenberry

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream (can substitute greek yogurt)
1/3 cup very finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 350° F. In a small saucepan, combine the butter, sugars and cream and bring to a boil. Boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the pecans, flour and salt. 

Drop level teaspoons of the warm batter, spacing them 4 inches apart onto parchment-lined baking sheets. If the batter cools between batches and can't be scooped, rewarm it slightly. 

Bake, rotating the sheets halfway through until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on the sheets until firm, about 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 

Enjoy!

Crumb Coffee Cake

 

I belong to a mom's group and once a month we get together for an event called Breakfast Buddies. Everyone brings a dish to share, the mom's talk and the kids play. It's a really nice even and we rotate houses, so it's not always at the same person's house. They don't know it, but they have become my guinea pigs. We were supposed to get 4-9 inches of snow, so I wasn't sure I was going to make something, but I decided to make something whether we got snow or not. I made Crumb Coffee Cake.

The cake part isn't that sweet, which is good for breakfast or anytime really. I know it's coffee cake, but I'm not a big coffee drinker so it paired nicely with a hot cup of tea. I decided to bake them in muffin tins instead of an 8x8 pan. I figured that would be easier for people to grab as oppose to having to slice it up. I baked them for 25 minutes until they were golden brown. 

The recipe calls for cake flour, but honestly I don't think it would make a difference in the topping. I make a topping very similar for an apple crisp and it turns out quite nicely with all purpose flour. You can make cake flour by adding two tablespoons of cornstarch for every cup of all purpose flour. 

Although I'm sure it would have looked pretty, I didn't dust with confectioner's sugar. It doesn't need to be any sweeter than it already is. 

Recipe adapted from America's Test Kitchen

Coffee Crumb Cake

Ingredients

Crumb Topping

1/3 cup (2 2/3 ounces) granulated sugar

1/3 cup (2 2/3 ounces) dark brown sugar

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp table salt

8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and still warm

1 3/4 cups (7 ounces) cake flour

Cake
1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) cake flour
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp table salt
6 Tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces, softened but still cool
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup buttermilk
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Instructions

For the Topping:

Whisk sugars, cinnamon, salt, and butter in medium bowl to combine.  Add flour and stir with rubber spatula or wooden spoon until mixture resembles thick, cohesive dough; set aside to cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.

For the Cake:
Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees.  Cut 16-inch length parchment paper and fold lengthwise to 7-inch width.  Spray 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and fit parchment into dish, pushing it into corners and up sides; allow excess to overhang edges of dish. Or use muffin cups. 

In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment (or you can do this with a handheld mixer), mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt on low speed to combine.  With mixer running at low speed, add butter one piece at a time; continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no visible butter chunks remaining, 1 to 2 minutes.  Add egg, yolk, vanilla, and buttermilk; beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute, scraping as necessary.

Transfer batter to baking pan; using rubber spatula, spread batter into even layer.  Break apart crumb topping into large pea-sized pieces (use both hands to break apart the crumb dough, rolling the broken dough between your thumb and forefinger) and spread in even layer over batter, beginning with edges and then working toward center.

Bake until crumbs are golden and wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 – 40 minutes. Cool on wire rack at least 30 minutes.  Remove cake from pan by lifting parchment overhang.  Dust with confectioners’ sugar just before serving.