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
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy Streusel Recipe: 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 the best texture in 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. If you want to use unsalted butter, that also works, you could add 1/4 teaspoon of salt into the recipe if you want.
- 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, pumpkin pie spice, 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
- 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.
- Add the flour, cane sugar, light brown sugar, and cinnamon to a medium bowl. Then add the melted butter.
- Mix together the ingredients until a paste like texture forms.
- 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
- 1-pound loaf bread or cake (like quick breads)
- 8-inch cake
- 9-inch cake
- 1 dozen donuts
- 8-inch blondies or brownies
- 9-inch blondies or brownies
How to Use
- You can use this streusel topping on your favorite baked goods such as muffins, coffee cake, pies, quick breads or even jam bars.
- If you're adding to blueberry muffins, baked donuts, or blondies or brownies, you can crumble on top of the batter right before baking.
- If you're adding this to a cake or quick breads such as apple bread, pumpkin bread, or banana bread, I recommend adding the streusel topping half way through baking. This helps prevent it from sinking. This would be perfect on top of Blueberry Buttermilk Banana Bread or Cinnamon Sweet Potato Bread Without Eggs.
- This makes the best crumb topping for pies. You can use this on top of any fruit pie in place of a top crust. Just crumble the topping on top of the fruit before baking.
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 and Old Fashioned Dutch Apple Pie are favorites! 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!
Recipe FAQ’s
Streusel originates from Germany and a crumble topping originates from Great Britain. Streusel topping is known for larger buttery pieces while crumble can be more dry. While they are made up of basically the same thing with slightly different ratios, the names are used interchangeably in recipes these days to describe a buttery, crumbly sweet topping on baked goods.
If you are adding a streusel topping to a soft batter like muffins or cake the streusel topping can sink if the batter is too thin. The streusel topping has weigh to it and can sink into softer batters. If you are baking a cake with a longer bake time, I recommend adding streusel topping half way through baking. This allows the cake to partially bake which will help the streusel topping from sinking.
If you are baking muffins, most batter is fine to put streusel topping on right away as it's at thicker batter and they bake for much less time so you want the streusel topping to have the full bake time in order to bake completely.
Yes, I provide a simple adjustment for gluten free in the recipe notes!
You can use vegan butter in place of traditional butter. The flavor will be slightly different, but if you're vegan or dairy free, it will still make a wonderful crunchy “buttery” topping.
Yes, you can use dark brown sugar instead of light brown. This just creates a richer flavor as dark brown sugar has more molasses than light brown sugar.
Definitely. Chopped pecans, walnuts, sliced almonds, or old-fashioned rolled oats are delicious additions. Just keep in mind they'll slightly change the texture and flavor of the finished streusel. I wouldn't add more than 1 to 2 ounces total.
If your streusel topping is dry, you either didn't mix it properly or didn't measure properly. This can happen if the ratio of butter to dry ingredients is off (too much dry ingredients), so make sure to measure by weight for the best results.
Greasy streusel is usually caused by adding too much butter or not incorporating the dry ingredients completely. Make sure all of the flour is evenly mixed into the melted butter before using it and be sure to use a digital food scale for accurate measurements.
Yes! Just spread the streusel on top of a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake until dry and golden brown, this should take at least 20 to 25 minutes. Be sure to check it and ensure it's fully cooked and golden brown.
This makes a wonderful topping for pies, muffins, coffee cakes, quick breads, fruit crisps, scones, cinnamon rolls, jam bars, or baked oatmeal. You can also bake it alone and use it as a topping for yogurt, granola, or ice cream.
If you are prepping in advance, the unbaked streusel can be refrigerated in an airtight container for 3 days before using. Once baked onto a dessert, follow the storage instructions for that specific recipe. If you bake the streusel separately, store it in a cool dry place so it stays crunchy, it will keep for a couple days.
Yes! You can prepare streusel topping up to 3 days in advance and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. When you're ready to bake, simply crumble it over your muffins, pies, coffee cake, or other baked goods.
Yes, just put the unbaked streusel topping in a freezer-safe bag or airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. You can sprinkle it directly onto your baked goods from frozen—no need to thaw it!
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How to Make the Best Streusel Topping
Equipment
- Digital Food Scale
- Mixing Bowl
- Spatula
Ingredients
- 85 grams salted butter (melted)
- 95 grams all purpose flour
- 57 grams cane sugar
- 57 grams light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- 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.
- Add the flour, cane sugar, light brown sugar, and cinnamon to a medium bowl. Then add the melted butter.
- Mix together the ingredients until a paste like texture forms.
- 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.
Video
Notes
- 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.
- Gluten Free — Replace the all purpose flour with 95 grams (½ cup plus 1 tablespoon) gluten free flour blend.
- High Altitude — Follow the recipe as noted.
Nutrition
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I use this streusel topping on everything from pie, to muffins, to cakes!