Black Cherry Vanilla Merbeteig Crumble
A no-measure, gluten-free German butter dough perfect for your next summer picnic
Story + Photography by Sarah Carroll
Confession: I love to bake, but I hate to measure. I know, tough for making persnickety recipes that need meticulous execution. So years ago when my grandmother gave me her recipe for German Muerbeteig (pronounced merba-taj, which means butter dough), I seized on it. I made it over and over and over until I got to a place where I could make it based on proportion so I could get away without using any measuring tools and still get a so-good-you’ll-have-trouble-waiting-for-it-to-cool dessert.
Three ingredient stars make this no-muss crumble to die for. First, the sweetest organic Door County, WI cherries (which if you’ve never had, please RUN to your nearest MN or WI farmers market or locally sourced co-op right now please). Second, a flavor bomb golden-yolk, humanely-raised egg from Larry Schultz Farms.
And third- the show stopper of a butter dough recipe- organic pasture-raised butter. I bake for flavor and richness and when I want to make something special, I make no compromises on getting the best possible butter. I used Organic Valley’s unsalted sweet cream butter. It’s so creamy, flavorful, and has the most beautiful sunshine hue. But even better, Organic Valley is a Wisconsin co-operative that produces dairy from pastured cows without synthetic hormones or antibiotics, and, from conversations I’ve had with one of their Animal Care Specialists, they take some pretty incredible steps to safeguard animal welfare. The end result is change-your-life butter that’s great for farmers, animals, and the environment. Bonus, you can find Organic Valley products at many conventional grocery stores.
So with those incredible ingredients, all you need is to roughly eyeball some proportions, hand crumble the dough or pulse in a food processor, top the crumbs on bloodred pitted and spiced cherries, and bake until golden brown. Forgiving and delicious. I used Bob’s Red Mill Cup-for-Cup gluten-free flour, but you can use any cup-for-cup GF blend you like, or regular wheat flour for you gluten eaters.
Because this is a proportions recipe, all you need to know to make the dough is to start with one stick of butter. From there, it’s one part butter, two parts sugar, eight parts flour, an egg, and a brimming cap of vanilla extract or generous shaved vanilla bean. Add a small spoonful of baking powder, a pinch of salt, and you’re good to go. And if you are a stickler for measurements, we’ve got those down below too.
Now good luck not eating all the crumbs raw…
Black Cherry and Vanilla Muerbeteig Butter Dough Crumble
Prep Time: 1 hour
Makes 6 servings
Gluten Free
Tools needed: none
Ingredients:
For filling:
3 cups of black cherries, pitted and halved
¼ a cup of sugar
½ tablespoon of cinnamon
1 large squeeze of lemon
For Muerbeteig (butter dough):
1 stick of chilled butter, sliced (1/4 a cup)
½ a cup of sugar
2 cups of flour (either GF baking cup-for-coup or wheat flour)
1 egg
1 teaspoon of baking powder
¼ teaspoon of salt
¼ to ½ a teaspoon of vanilla extract
Dribbles of ice water
Cinnamon for dusting
Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Prepare the Merbeteig. In a large bowl, break apart pads of chilled butter with the prongs of a fork until the butter is in crumbs. Add sugar (or eyeball double the volume of the butter and add that much sugar!) and use your hands to mix together the butter and sugar.
3. Add the flour (or eyeball quadruple the amount of sugar you added), the baking powder, egg, salt, and vanilla extract. Work the entire mixture with your hands until all the ingredients are well integrated. The dough should like loose, thin crumbs. Carefully dribble a few drops of ice water into the mixture, just enough to give it some moisture for the dough to form into a ball. Put the bowl of dough into the refrigerator and cover it. Wait until has chilled. You can place it in the freezer for a few minutes if you’re in a time crunch.
4. Prepare the cherry filling. Mix together the pitted, halved cherries in a bowl with sugar, cinnamon, and a generous squeeze of lemon. Set aside.
5. Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator. Grease a medium pie dish or oven-safe baking dish of your preference. Add the cherry filling evenly. Break apart the ball of chilled dough into rough, medium crumbs until the entire cherry layer is covered. Sprinkle lightly with a little cinnamon if desired.
6. Bake in the oven at 325 degrees until the crumbs are a light golden brown. Do not overbake.
7. Cool and serve! If you used a gluten-free flour, serve right after cooling.
Mix it up:
-Don’t have Door County black cherries? Any cherries will do! So will any other fruit filling that you like- rhubarb, blueberry, peach, you name it.
-Make individual little crumbles by baking the recipe in four small ramekins.
-Serve with fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for extra deliciousness.
