How to Make the Best Streusel Topping

Streusel topping is a delightful, crumbly mixture that adds texture and sweetness to a variety of baked goods, from muffins to coffee cakes, pies, and more. Crafting the perfect streusel topping involves understanding the right balance of ingredients and techniques to achieve that golden, buttery crunch. Here’s how to make the best streusel topping for your baked goods!

If you’re looking for more baking tutorials, check out some of my others like How to Make Pie Crust in a Mixer, How to Crumb Coat a Cake, Organic Pink Food Coloring, How to Frost Cupcakes 12 Ways, How to Make a Flower Cake With Buttercream, or Homemade True Caramel.

A Quick Look At The Recipe

• Recipe Name: How to Make the Best Streusel Topping
• Ready In: 5 minutes
• Makes: 12 servings
• Main Ingredients: butter, brown sugar, all purpose flour, cinnamon
• Flavor Profile: butter, brown sugar goodness
• Dietary Info: eggless, no seed oils, gluten free swap available
• Difficulty: Easy!
• Why You’ll Love It: effortless five-ingredient recipe for buttery streusel topping

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Easy: This recipe is so easy; it comes together in one bowl with just a mixing bowl and a spatula.
• Use on Everything: You can use this homemade streusel topping on everything from muffins, pies, coffee cakes, donuts, and more!
• Minimal Ingredients: I love this crumb topping recipe because it only has 5 simple ingredients that you probable already have in your pantry!
• Buttery and Sweet: This homemade streusel topping is buttery and sweet. It will add texture, crunch, and rich sweetness to any baked goods!

What is a streusel topping?

Whether you call it a streusel topping, crumb topping or a crumble topping, the names are interchangeable and mean the same thing. A streusel topping is a crispy, buttery, sweet topping that is made up of butter, flour, sugar, and spices.

It’s usually found on top of pies such as my classic Dutch Apple Pie, Peach Crumble Pie, Baked Chai Donuts with Sourdough Discard, and more! This buttery topping is is crumbled on top of baked goods, which is why it’s also known as a crumb or crumble topping. It's baked into buttery sweet pieces that elevate baked goods!

Ingredients

• Butter: The key to a great streusel topping is using organic salted butter that is melted! Many recipes will tell you to use cold cubed butter and I’ve always found this does not make the best crumb topping recipe. The butter creates a rich flavor and helps bind the other ingredients when you melt it. This prevents dry parts or too sweet parts that may not be combined completely if you use cold butter.
• Brown Sugar: I use homemade light brown sugar as it adds a deeper, caramel-like flavor. For a richer flavor, use dark brown sugar in place of light brown sugar.
• Flour: Organic all purpose flour is the base of your streusel topping. It helps absorb the butter and forms the crumbly texture.
• Spices: Organic ground cinnamon is a classic choice and what I use in this recipe. But, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, or even a pinch of cardamom can add a unique twist depending on what you’re topping. You can choose spices that complement the baked good you’re making.

*For a full list of ingredients and measurements, visit the recipe card below.

Baker’s Tips

• Make sure to mix the dry ingredients completely into the butter so the mixture is uniform in texture and color.
• If you’re topping a cake, always partially bake the cake about half way through, then add the streusel topping on top of the partially baked cake. This will prevent it from falling and melting into the cake batter and keep it on top!
• If baking muffins you can add directly onto the muffin batter before baking.
• If making pie, you can add directly on top of your fruit filling.
• Feel free to add in additional spices with the cinnamon or swap it out for another spice that compliments your recipe. Other spices that go well with this crumb topping are ginger, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin spice, allspice, or cardamom.
• Easily make this gluten free by replacing the all purpose flour with 95 grams (½ cup plus 1 tablespoon) gluten free flour blend.

How to Make the Best Streusel Topping

1. Melt the butter. You can do this in a small pot over the stove top, which is what I prefer. Or you can also do this in a microwave safe bowl. Transfer to a medium mixing bowl.

2. Add the flour, cane sugar, light  brown sugar, and cinnamon into the bowl with the melted butter. 

3. Mix together the ingredients until a paste like texture forms.

4. It’s ready to use on top of baked goods like pie, muffins, coffee cake, and more. Crumble the topping on top of your baked goods and bake per the instructions of the recipe you’re following.

How much does this make?

This recipe will make enough streusel topping to cover any these baked goods. If you need more, simply double the recipe!

• 1 pie
• 1 dozen muffins
• 8-inch cake
• 9-inch cake
• 1 dozen donuts
• 8-inch blondies or brownies
• 9-inch blondies or brownies

More Recipes With Streusel Topping

If you love streusel topping, try out some of my other recipes that have this kind of crumb topping! Blueberry Honey Crumble Pie is one of my favorite summer pies! If you are looking for crumb bars, try this twist on the classic with the addition of chocolate and make Chocolate Strawberry Crumb Bars. I also use a crumble topping on top of Eggless Chocolate Carrot Cake!

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