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Elevate your muffins and fruit crisps with this cinnamon sugar kissed crunchy oat streusel topping
Okay, let’s chat about that sweet, crunchy, oat streusel crumb topping. When you reach for a muffin that has it, do you want to have equal amounts of streusel to muffin, less streusel, or more? What about when it comes to fruit crisps?
So for me, it’s situational – if it’s a muffin, I definitely want more muffin than topping but when it comes to a fruit crisp – I want a 50/50 split. Those little nuggets of crispy cinnamon sugar-kissed deliciousness are positively addictive. I can remember as a child we kids would fight over it when Mom would make a fruit crisp. We’d all want the piece with the most crunchy bits on it.
Grab Your Ingredients
These ingredients are pretty much standard in most pantries and kitchens however if you don’t have them on hand, they should be readily available at your local market.
Oats – you only want the old fashioned oats, not instant or quick cooking
Brown Sugar
Flour
Cinnamon
Salt
Toasted Chopped Pecans
Butter
See the substitutions below if you want nut-free, gluten-free, or dairy free.
Make The Streusel
In a large bowl, the oats, sugar, cinnamon, flour, salt, and pecans.
Give it a stir and add in the softened butter
Using the back of a fork or your fingers, work the butter into the mixture.
What you’re looking for is to coat the pieces with the butter and to have clumps form. And that’s it, folks. Really, it’s THAT easy!
Chef’s Tip for Make-ahead Streusel
Once the streusel is at this stage you can put it in an air-tight container and place it in the fridge for up to 3 days.
In a large bowl add all of the streusel ingredients EXCEPT the butter and mix to combine. Add in the very soft butter and with either clean hands or a fork, press the butter into the oat mixture until it forms clumps and coated crumbs.
Use it on your favorite fruit dessert, cookie, quick bread, or muffins.
To bake as pieces, preheat the oven to 325F and line a rimmed baking pan with parchment. Place the streusel in a single layer, and bake until golden brown or about 25 minutes. Let it cool completely in the sheet pan on a wire rack. Once cooled, break it up into small pieces. Store in an air-tight container for up to a week.
Notes
This can be made 1 day in advance. Simply make, place in an air-tight container, and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
I doubled the cinnamon, halved the sugar, and used whole wheat pastry flour. Ate it straight out of the oven over homemade apple sauce. It was delicious. The crunch was perfect. If you aren’t used to lower sugar like I am you will probably want all the sugar.
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