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How do you make a better coffee cake crumb topping?


maui420

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last night was my first attempt at a blueberry coffecake. it came out awesome but i felt that the topping part could be better. basicall, from the top of my head, it was 1 cup of brown sugar, 2/3 c flour, 1/2 cup of small diced up butter, and some cinnamon.

the topping came out ok but seemed a little "grainy" like sandy and didnt have that crumbly bubbly style top.

suggestions? thanks. will post pics next time.

Edited by Smithy
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This is the crumb topping that I often use, when I have the extra time ... makes a lot of topping so that one can save some for another cake ...

3 sticks of butter

2 1/4 Cups Sugar

3 Cups Flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix well and then put into the refrigerator overnight or freezer for 1 1/2 hrs...

Better when frozen first .. not certain why exactly ... but it is good!

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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Mix well and then put into the refrigerator overnight or freezer for 1 1/2 hrs...

Better when frozen first .. not certain why exactly ... but it is good!

Freezing prevents the butter from melting as fast. This results in less spread. Same technique works for chocolate chip cookies.

Maui420, the commercial outfits get a lot of their crumbliness from using shortening. For health reasons I wouldn't recommend this. Green crisco (palm oil) might work, although if I wanted the crumbliest streusel possible, I'd probably use clarified butter. I think I'd also opt for a lower gluten pastry flour.

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This is a browned-butter topping that's fantastic... Happy crumb and cake testing. :smile:

1 c. flour

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

5 tablespoons butter

Combine the first four ingredients in a mixing bowl, and stir together well.

Melt butter over medium heat in a small saute pan. Cook until the butter foams and begins to turn light brown. When it smells nutty, take the pan off the heat and cool slightly.

Stir the browned butter into the reserved dry ingredients for the streusel topping.

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This is a browned-butter topping that's fantastic... Happy crumb and cake testing. :smile:

1 c. flour

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

5 tablespoons butter

Combine the first four ingredients in a mixing bowl, and stir together well.

Melt butter over medium heat in a small saute pan. Cook until the butter foams and begins to turn light brown. When it smells nutty, take the pan off the heat and cool slightly.

Stir the browned butter into the reserved dry ingredients for the streusel topping.

MMMmm this sounds good since i love browned butter anything...

I do like to add nuts (like almonds, pecans or macadamias) in crumb toppings.

My recipe is basically the same like some of these.

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336g butter

300g sugar, brown (whatever darkness you prefer for flavor)

500g flour, all purpose

12g baking soda

4g salt

225g oatmeal

this can be used as a crust when packed into tart molds and also as a topping

mix dry ingredients together and add cold butter in small cubes. mix until the butter becomes pea sized bits (like making a biscuit or pie dough). do not overmix! if you do so, it will be like concrete.

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My favorite streusel uses almond flour/meal to replace some of the flour. I'm not a big fan of oatmeal in streusel myself.

To get a nice nubbly texture, make sure you don't undermix it. In fact, you can take it all the way to a dough, chill it, and use a cooling rack to "grate" it into a crumbles.

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Some time ago I read an article by Jim Dodge. Don't remember when but he, too, says to squeeze the streusel into clumps and as I recall he called for at least 1/3 as much crumb as fruit in crisps so I imagine a good heavy coating of crumbs on coffee csake would work.

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The last time I made streusel I melted the butter rather than cutting it cold into the dry ingredients and found it was easier to squeeze into clumps of varying sizes. Next time I'll try nightscotsman's technique.

Ilene

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