What happened to Melissa Clark's videos? I looked forward to them every week!
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Every time I see a recipe that specifies grapefruit I think of the millions of people (myself included) who take one of the statin drugs for which grapefruit is a no-no. Boohoo. Should these recipes come with a black box warning? I guess if you don't eat the entire cake in one sitting you'll be fine. But that looks like it may be hard to do.
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https://health.clevelandclinic.org/statins-grapefruit-safely-mix/ and https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/grapefruit-juice-and-statins have good info on this - I just spoke to my internist about it, and he said occasional grapefruit consumption isn't really problematic. You shouldn't eat a grapefruit for breakfast chased by a glass of juice, but a slice of cake with a few segments is unlikely to potentiate side effects. I think this one has been really overblown in the media; maybe talk to your healthcare provider about the specific risk for the statin you take.
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Thank, Kristine. I was being tongue-in-cheek with my comment about requiring a "black box warning" but it would still probably be best not to gulp the entire cake down in one sitting.
By the way, I had my my former internist whether I could go off my no-grapefruit regime for a week while on vacation and he said it would be no problem, that the grapefruit would simply render the statin less effective. Of course, he had it completely backwards; the grapefruit increases the potency of the statin. You would think that he would know this considering it is one of the most prescribed drugs in the world. Then again, he is my former internist.
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Melissa, love your recipes and can't wait to try this one, over the weekend!
And thanks for your tip on the Saladish book, great book and wonderful inspiration!
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In spite of the comments -lol - I intend to make this this week for my husband's homecoming! I've really never found a bad recipe from the cooking section! I'll post there after I've made it! Love grapefruit - love crumb cake - can't wait to try it! Take the risk... They call me Danger Mouse! lol
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Interesting batch of comments so far--not one person actually tried the recipe but several already decided they didn't like it.
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Annie, when it comes to NYT recipes, I tend to read only the comments on the recipe itself, not on the article about the recipe. You'll usually find more useful comments there, where cooks have tried the recipe and have interesting suggestions. Comments here are mostly focused on the idea of crumb cakes, and whether anybody should be fooling around with a good thing or making a bad thing worse.
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I made it. Twice. It's only 'eh. Too much vanilla, the grapefruit makes the top of the cake soggy (below the crumb) and the cake itself is too bland (except for all that vanilla - a tablespoon!!).
The crumb topping is great, however.
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Half a pound of butter for 8 servings...looks good, but I dunno.
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I'm with the others who live for the big sweet moist crumb topping. Drake's created my coffee cake palate. :)
And I always LOVE Andrew Scrivani's photo accompaniments.
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I'm with you plmaloof! It's Mr. Scrivani's photos that gets my attention and alerts my senses before I even begin to read through the article, although Ms. Clark's writing is witting and extremely educational.
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The problem with crumb cake isn't that it's too sweet. It's that they are too dry. The cake often dries out and has the texture of shredded paper, which is why you need to down a cup of coffee or two to make it palatable. Would like to see a recipe on a moist cake.
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@ Eva Klein Washington
Your comment brings to mind a more general thought: all things made of crumbs or decomposable into crumbs are an excellent offering for birds, squirrels, chipmunk, and other animal inhabitants of outdoors.
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@Tuvw Xyz Evanston, Illinois
I agree with your suggestion, but living where we do (not far from your locale) the invasion of raccoons, possums, and rats tend to follow if these "decomposable" treats aren't eaten in a reasonable amount of time. We sweep up whatever leftovers remain by sundown to avoid their unwelcome visits.
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My take on this: Neatly section a large (half of) a grapefruit; blanket it with a thin layer of sour-cream-enriched cake bits; sprinkle with a fine coating of brown-sugared, butter-moistened crumbs.
Or, less guilt-provoking, just eat the grapefruit with a few grains of sugar -- brown or what-have-you -- and be happy.
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I love all of the crumb cake love. My family has been on a search for the perfect crumb cake recipe after our preferred bakery closed. It's our Christmas morning tradition. We're looking for big crumbs, no citrus. Any ideas for us?
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You might try Maida's Blueberry Crumb Cake which was published in the NYT on June 10, 1973. Also in "The Essential NYT Cookbook," page 632. I have made it dozens of times. It is a real crowd pleaser in blueberry season.
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Just thinking out loud here, but if one finds a luscious crumb cake too sweet or decadent, why not simply enjoy a glass of grapefruit juice on the side while devouring a slice of cake? This way one can enjoy the bitter with the sweet without adulterating the crumb cake.
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Is it "adulterating" if it is actually IN the recipe? I think the effect of what you propose would be different. And you wouldn't get the pulp/fiber.
Actually, the bitterness and acidity of grapefruit is emphatically NOT what I want come dessert. If it's a bit of a tang I'm looking for, there are far more palatable ways to get it. A bit of fresh grated or juiced ginger comes to mind. But in a crumb cake, the last think I want is to mess it up with fruit, especially something like grapefruit, which tastes far happier in other parts of a meal. This just seems to me like messing about for the purpose of messing about. Some things really are better left alone -- although I will admit that playing around with stuff is part of the fun of cooking. However - you gotta pay attention to the result, and then not do it again if it's not a good idea.
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"A tart solution..."
Melissa -- I generally enjoy your recipes and have made (and experimented with) many of them.
However, on this I can dig my heels firmly into concrete -- crumb cake needs NO solution. It is perfection personified. Whether the base is yeast based or sour cream/pound cake based, no fruit needs to interfere with the glory that is the crumb. None.
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I must be weird and am probably in the minority here, but what I love, cherish and grave about crumb cake is the "mound of brown sugar nuggets blanketing a moist, sour cream-enriched cake [which] often walks the line between decadent and overkill". The addition of fruit, any fruit, mucks up my game. However, to be fair, I will try this sweet crumb cake recipe with grapefruit, if for no other reason, to be able to state honestly if I found the grapefruit appealing or not to my picky taste buds. The photograph does look extremely tempting and intriguing.
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@ Marge Keller Midwest
I wholly share your opinion of crumb cake, except for not bothering to make one with grapefruit. As in the old saying, "do not fix it, if it is not broken".
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