Kitchen Notes: A Rye Cake for All Seasons

a Milk Glass Pie market staple

Our small farm in the foothills of Western North Carolina is also home to Milk Glass Pie, a cottage bakery born of love and pie. We call it the farm-bakery because it is just as much an agricultural project as the fields outside the bakery door. What started as a side hustle to a freelance writing career became a deep love affair with baking and a working part of the vision my husband and I created together.

This year marks my tenth year of baking (!) and nearly four years of baking from the farm. Today you’ll find a dedicated bakery space with a big professional oven and bonafide equipment where none existed before. I work with two women now and we produce a wide menu of pie and pastries for the farmers market every week. Our selections change with the seasons, of course. We tap into what’s growing here on the farm and what our farmer friends are growing on their farms. Relationships keep us flush with the best ingredients.

One of our most treasured relationships is the one we have with Carolina Ground and its owner/miller Jennifer Lapidus. Carolina Ground is one of the pioneers of the Southeastern grain movement thanks to the dogged curiosity and genius mind of Jennifer who connected the dots between farmer, miller, and baker over the better part of a decade. What emerged was a viable local food system that honored regional grains and connected the farmer to the baker and the baker to a source of flavor and quality not found on most grocery store shelves.

I met Jennifer for the first time when I reported a story on the local grain economy. I visited her mill, located in Asheville at the time, and found my way down the rabbit hole to her old bakery in Marshall, North Carolina, inhabited then by a baker named Tara Jensen. Honestly, this is where my baking journey begins. Tara was using Carolina Ground flour and I learned about the distinct flavors of whole grains from her work with them. On a whim, I took a pie workshop from Tara that set me on a path that has led me to where I am today. That was 2014, the same year I met my husband. Love and pie, indeed.

Carolina Ground is the flour we use almost exclusively in the bakery and this cake recipe is based on the beautiful earthy quality of Wren’s Abruzzi Rye. I love the flavor imparted by rye and find it pairs well with so many ingredients— chocolate, citrus, berries, apples, and stone fruit. The list goes on. Pictured above is the cake made with a seasonal flush of persimmons last December. This cake is evergreen. Use the base over and over and swap out the fruit throughout the seasons.

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Rye Coffee Cake with Seasonal Fruit and Toasted Rye Crumble

Some folks hear the term rye and instantly think of brown bread that tastes of caraway seed. But that’s not the breadth of rye flour. In the bakery, we use it in brownies, pie pastry, and this not-too-sweet cake that is just as good for breakfast as it is for an afternoon snack. This is one of the staples at the farmers market, a cake that remains in the case but shapeshifts through the year based on what’s in season.

I wanted to highlight the unique flavor of rye so I use a toasted rye crumble for the crumble topping. You can order rye flakes online here and here, or you can substitute rolled oats for a similar result. Think of all the possibilities with this recipe. Maybe you spread a layer of apple butter or jam before adding the fruit, or maybe you add nuts to the crumble topping. The base is ripe for your creative whims. Have fun with it!

*For best results, read the recipe all the way through before making it. Gather all your ingredients in one place, turn on some soothing music, and put the love into it.

For the Crumble Topping:

1/2 cup (65g) toasted rye flakes (can sub rolled oats)

3/4 cup (80g) Rye Flour (I like this one from Carolina Ground Flour)

1/2 cup (104 g) granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 stick (113g) cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

For the Cake:

1 cup (206g) granulated sugar

1 1/2 sticks (170g) room temperature butter

3 eggs

3/4 cup (108g) all-purpose flour

1/2 cup (56g) rye flour

1 1/2 teaspoons (7g) baking powder

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1lb (454g) strawberries (or any seasonal fruit)

Butter a 9-inch springform pan and cut a circle of parchment paper to fit the base of the pan.

Toast the rye flakes in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, until the flakes take on a bit of color. Let cool before adding to crumble recipe. This can be done the night before, if you like.

Make the crumble: In a food processor, combine the rye flakes, flour, sugar, salt, and cold butter. In 2-3 second intervals, pulse the mixture together until it looks sandy with small pebble-like pieces of butter throughout. Alternatively, you can cut the butter straight into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender.

Pour the crumble mixture into a mixing bowl and use one hand to grab a fistful of crumble. Squeeze the crumble in your hand and then slowly release it back into the bowl. Do this until the crumble changes form. It will become less sandy and start to moisten and form chunks of crumble. Stop once the mixture maintains nice chunks of crumble. Refrigerate or freeze the bowl while you make the cake.

Make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a stand mixer, or with electric beaters, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add all the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The cake mixture is dense and tacky, not comfortably pourable.

Pull bowl from the stand mixer and give it a couple of firm stirs with the spatula, being sure to scrape the very center bottom of the bowl to incorporate any lonely unmixed pieces of butter and sugar.

Add cake mixture to the prepared pan. Instead of fighting to spread this cake batter across the pan, I like to wet my fingertips with cold water and press the batter evenly to the edges of the pan. The surface will look dimpled as you push it to the edges. Don’t worry, you can gently smooth the surface with an offset spatula, or the back of a spoon. Top with strawberries and then the crumble.

Bake the cake for 80-90 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. It took nearly 85 minutes in my temperamental home oven. Cool the cake, then dust with powdered sugar.