I’m sure when you saw last weekend’s rhubarb post you were wondering why I didn’t make one of Deb’s many rhubarb recipes. Well, that’s because I can usually count on getting rhubarb at my farmer’s market for a few weeks running, so I knew I’d have another chance. I chose the Big Crumb Coffee Cake because I love coffee cake, but am often disappointed by a stingy amount of streusel.

This is truly one of those “Why haven’t I made that?” moments. While this recipe is from 2008, I know I only bookmarked it sometime in the last couple of years, probably after Deb resurfaced it during rhubarb season. I’m not sure why I didn’t make it; probably because it didn’t seem very dessert-y.

This is a pretty straightforward recipe, though you will feel like you’ve used half the bowls in your kitchen. (I went through five.) You toss the rhubarb with sugar and cornstarch, make a very sturdy streusel, and put together a thick batter. You spread the batter into the pan and top it with huge chunks of streusel.

This does need to be in the oven for a while — 45 to 55 minutes. It’s hard to tell when this is done due to the rhubarb. At 45 I put mine back in for 5 minutes, but should have given it 10, maybe 15. The sides and some parts of the top were a lovely golden brown, but it turned out the very middle was tragically underbaked. So, if you make this pay careful attention to that, especially if you’re using a glass baking pan. (I was, and in retrospect I should have dug out my metal pan.)

You do also want to let it cool. Maybe not quite completely, but cooling allows the streusel to firm up a bit and that gives you a nice textural contrast to the soft cake and jammy rhubarb.

Despite the near-total loss of the center piece, this was delicious. Rhubarb in coffee cake is such an unexpected combination, I really think you should try this. And as Deb suggests I think this would work well with other tart fruit; in particular I’m curious to try this with blueberries. But if you like your coffee cake uncluttered this would be just as good without fruit. (Maybe use a heavy hand on the vanilla.)

I put about half of this in the freezer and will report back on how it holds up. I didn’t do anything special to it, just threw the pieces into a plastic container and stuck it on the bottom of the freezer. It’ll be nice to have on hand the next time we’re sad that we’re out of bagels.