My sweet and buttery streusel topping is the perfect way to top off your favorite muffins and cakes! This crumb topping makes enough to cover 12 muffins, a 10" pie, or the surface of one 9”x13” cake. Recipe includes a how-to video!
6Tablespoons(85g)unsalted buttermelted and cooled so that it’s warm but not hot to the touch (if you only have salted butter, use that and omit the salt)
see notes section for optional add-in ingredients
Instructions
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk or stir together flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and salt.
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour, ½ cup light brown sugar tightly packed, ⅓ cup sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt
Drizzle butter over the mixture and use a fork to toss and claw the ingredients together until combined but still clumpy. Don’t over-mix or the streusel will become like a paste, simply toss together until mixture is clumpy, no longer dry, and the flour is completely absorbed.
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
Scatter evenly over muffins, pie, or coffee cake before baking. While the baking time may be an extra minute or so due to the added bulk of the streusel, I recommend checking for doneness at the time indicated in the recipe before adding more baking time.
Video
Notes
Nuts
Walnuts, pecans, or your favorite nuts make a fine addition to this crumb topping, I recommend finely chopping ⅓ cup of nuts (roughly 50g) and tossing them in with your flour and sugar. No other alterations are necessary.
Spices/vanilla
This recipe works well with a pinch of cinnamon (if using, I add ¾ teaspoon, but adjust according to your own taste) or other spices such as nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, allspice, or pumpkin spice. Simply stir in your spice of choice with the flour/sugar mixture. A splash of vanilla extract will make the streusel richer and more flavorful. If desired, mix ½ teaspoon of vanilla with the melted butter before adding the butter to the flour mixture.
Making in advance
You can make this topping up to three days in advance of using. Simply store in an airtight container at room temperature then sprinkle over your cake/muffins/etc. before baking.
The best batters for streusel
Streusel can be used to top most of your favorite goods (think muffins, pies, fruit crisps, and dense cakes like coffee cake). Keep in mind that the streusel is prone to sinking in very thin, liquidy batters and is best used on thicker, denser batters.