B & W Bakery - Hackensack, NJ

Posted By Bruce Bilmes and Susan Boyle on September 30, 2007 10:06 PM

Have you had New Jersey-style crumb cake? If you're not from the Northeast it's likely you haven't, but once you do you may find that the standard issue crumb cake you've always enjoyed just doesn't do it for you anymore. What makes the Jersey edition unique is how the crumb cake concept is turned on its head. It's all about the crumbs. Oh, there's cake, but the half-inch of pastry supports four times its height in sweet crumbs!

Many northern New Jerseyans look to the B & W Bakery to satisfy their crumb cake cravings. While some Jersey cakes use a pound cake-like base, B & W's "heavy crumb cake" (their words) is built upon a lightly sweet yeasted pastry, like a Danish. The waist-deep pile of large crumbs, some crunchy and others soft, that sits atop the cake are not cloyingly sweet, though plenty sweet enough. This is a crumb cake that just cries out for a pot of coffee and a lazy morning.

Crumb cake is not all. Doughnuts are modest in variety but not in quality. The old-fashioned cruller is actually a plain doughnut, not what we think of as a cruller. The faintly crisp shell contains barely sweet pastry with a gentle flavor that never pales, and has none of the astringency of poorly-made chain doughnuts. The Boston cream is a tour de force yeasted doughnut filled with cool pastry cream and blanketed with dark, thick chocolate, while the iced crullers are true crullers, like sweetened eggy popovers twisted into a circle, topped with sweet chocolate or vanilla icing.

B & W is usually busy any time of day, but service is quick, and the women who work the counter are patient and friendly. Show any indecision and other customers are sure to cheerfully chime in with their recommendations. While crumb cake is the star attraction, many folks swear by the variety of Danish and pecan rings. And there's a tray of what looks like sticky buns that keeps whispering our names. We've not yet answered their call, but suspect that resistance is futile.

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Posted By Kevin Brodie on August 31, 2011 1:18 PM

I can't believe that someone would NOT give at least their crumb cake a five-star rating. This is, hands down, the best crumb cake in the world. The cake is moist and airy, and the crumbs are dense, sweet, and delicious.

My family has been going here since the 1970s. They recently changed hands; a Korean family now owns it. I was afraid that the good, old-school German recipes would disappear. Not so! The new owners have apparently (and wisely) bought the recipes with the store, and the crumb cake tastes the same.

I have tried their donuts, cannolis, etc. Not bad but there are certainly better in Bergen County. Just get the crumbcake! You will not be disappointed.

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Crumb Cake

Cookies

Donuts

Crullers

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Posted By Howard Mostyn-Brown on May 15, 2011 11:01 AM

My wife grew up in Oradell, NJ in the 1960s. Her family would go to B & W almost every Sunday after church and stand in line to buy their crumb cake. I first sampled it when we were dating back in 1970. After we were married, her mother would bring a fresh crumb cake on her visits to our home in San Francisco. Best crumb cake I have ever eaten. Nothing like it anywhere in the US.

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Crumb Cake

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Posted By Judy Sweet on April 19, 2011 4:31 PM

Best crumb cake on the face of the earth! Crumbs the size of a toddler's fist, with a little bit of cake below to make it right. Get there early in the morning, because they do run out. And by the way, their seven-layer cake is also fabulous.

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Crumb Cake

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Posted By Mike Zearfaus on April 8, 2008 11:19 AM

I had heard about their famous crumb cake for years but never got around to trying it. I was on the way to work and hit traffic so I turned off the highway and was able to detour my way over to B&W Bakery. This is the first time I was glad there was traffic. I stopped in about 7:15am. I bought a dozen doughnuts and sheet of crumb cake. I wrote it off for work and fed the entire office.

This is the ultimate crumb cake. There is so much crumb on top of a great moist cake. My least favorite part of crumb cake is the cake itself (usually dry); this was the total opposite. I almost like the cake as much as the crumb. They have other cakes and pastries, all calling me to come back again. I will be sure not to take so long to get there again.

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