Buttery, crumbly, sugary and sweet, the best streusel topping is made with chopped pecans, brown sugar goodness, and just 5 ingredients.
An Impressive and Secretly Easy Streusel Topping
Just when you thought your favorite muffin recipe couldn’t get any better, streusel showed up. And just like that, crumbly, buttery, impossibly delicious and perfectly sweet streusel topping made everything more magical.
Ready to make this simple, 5 ingredient recipe with me? Let’s go!
Really, just 5 ingredients… or 4, if you like
Crumbly, sweet, mouthwatering: this streusel topping recipe is easy to make and comes together with just 5 simple ingredients.
- Flour – I tried oat flour, but it didn’t work. Stick to all purpose flour for the best results.
- Pecans – my favorite nut to use, but can be subbed with another nut
- Brown sugar – I don’t recommend subbing this with coconut sugar. The results are too wet and overly coconutty.
- Ground cinnamon – you can leave this out if you don’t like cinnamon
- Butter – feel free to use vegan butter, not coconut oil (it won’t work).
What is Streusel Topping?
Streusel topping is a dessert & sweet breakfast topping that originates from Germany. In German, “streusel” literally means “sprinkles”. It can also mean “something scattered”. [1]
What’s the difference between Streusel and Strudel?
Don’t worry, folks get this one confused all the time. Streusel is a sweet topping made of sugar, flour, and butter that’s sprinkled over baked goods. Streusel originates from Germany.
Strudel is a baked pastry that consists of a fruit filling stuffed inside of pastry sheets. Strudel originates from Austria. [2]
Today, we’re making streusel topping. Once we master this streusel topping recipe, we can sprinkle it on every single baked good!
How to Make Streusel Topping
Learn how to make streusel topping with just 5 simple ingredients and a few steps.
First, add the flour, brown sugar, pecans, and cinnamon to a medium or small mixing bowl. Then, whisk dry ingredients together until well mixed.
Now, add in melted butter. Grab a fork or small spatula to stir and fold everything together to create crumbles for the best streusel topping.
Keep folding until you don’t see any more patches of flour. If left, they’d result in yucky clumps of flour even after baking.
💡 Tip: Remember to chop your pecans more finely for smaller crumbles; chop just roughly for larger crumbles in your streusel topping.
FAQS
When do you add streusel topping?
Once you’ve fully prepared your baked good, but have not yet baked it, add the streusel topping. So, right before the baked good goes into the oven, sprinkle the streusel topping and gently press it into the raw batter. Then, bake.
Can I substitute any of the ingredients?
You can easily swap the nuts and the cinnamon. However, for the rest of the ingredients, I recommend sticking to the recipe as listed. I’ve tried swaps with little success. 😉
How to make streusel topping for blueberry muffins?
Use this recipe to make streusel topping for blueberry muffins. You can keep the pecans, or you can swap them with walnuts or almonds.
How to make streusel topping for muffins?
Using butter, sugar, flour, and a spice of choice, you can create streusel topping for muffins. This streusel topping recipe is a good place to start. Once you learn it, you can start customizing it exactly for your muffin recipe.
More How-to Recipes
Tools You Need
There’s Muffin I Appreciate More Than You
Erik and I are just a two-person team here at Beaming Baker. And just so you know, your love and support means the world to us. If you make a recipe, make sure to leave a comment and rating—it means so much to us & helps us grow. ‘Til our next sweet adventure…
Sending you all my love and maybe even a dove, xo Demeter ❤️
👩🍳 📸 🧁
📸 Did you make this streusel topping recipe? Take a pic and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #beamingbaker & tag @beamingbaker. I’d love to see it! 📸
Streusel Topping
Total Time: 5 minutes
Yield: enough for 10–12 muffins, a loaf of bread or an 8-inch pan of bars 1x
Description
Buttery, crumbly, sugary and sweet, the best streusel topping is made with chopped pecans, brown sugar goodness, and just 5 ingredients.
Tools You Need
Streusel Topping
Instructions
- Mix everything but butter together: flour, brown sugar, pecans, and cinnamon.
- Add melted butter.
- Using a fork, gently stir and fold until clumps form.
- Make sure to evenly stir together the mixture so no flour patches remain hidden in a clump.
Use this Streusel to top:
Notes
For larger crumbs, use roughly chopped pecans and stop stirring once large clumps form.
For smaller crumbs, use finely chopped pecans and continue to stir and break up larger clumps.
How to make Vegan: use organic brown sugar and vegan butter.
How to make Gluten Free: try gluten free all purpose flour; just remember that all GF AP flours work differently.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Category: Desserts, How-to
- Method: Stir
- Cuisine: German, American
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