• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Unpeeled Journal logo

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Recipes
    • Breakfast
    • Soup, Salad, Snacks
    • Dinner
    • Sides
    • Dessert + Baking
    • Holidays
    • Vegetarian + Vegan
    • Beverages
    • Easy
    • Recipe Collections
  • Features
    • Articles
    • Profiles
  • Lifestyle
    • Wellness
    • Food Travel Guides
    • Book Club
  • Cooking School
    • Cooking Technique
    • Baking + Pastry Technique
    • Wine Class
    • Better Know a Food
  • The Food + Grief Project
  • About
Home / Recipes / How to Make Streusel Topping for Crisps and Pies

Jump to Recipe

How to Make Streusel Topping for Crisps and Pies

Share
Pin10
Tweet
Email
Print

Who needs pie dough? Use this sweet streusel recipe instead.

unbaked streusel topping on an apple crisp

A good streusel recipe should be among everyone’s basic baking recipes. Made with flour, sugar, butter, and cinnamon, streusel can be used to top fruit pies, crisps, and crumbles as well as coffee cakes, muffins, and baked goods.

Learn more about how to make and use a versatile streusel topping, below.

How to Make Streusel for Pie, Crisp, and Crumbles

How to Make Homemade Streusel Topping

This homemade pie crumble recipe and technique is simple:

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup of brown sugar with 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup oatmeal, cinnamon, and salt. Mix.
  2. Add cold, diced butter. Work it in with your hands until crumbly.
  3. Chill until ready to use.
raw streusel topping for pie after being hand mixed

The streusel topping should be the texture of coarse, wet sand.

Homemade Streusel Recipe Tips

First, be sure to use rolled oats and not quick oats. Quick oats tend to become lost in the recipe. Rolled oats have more structure and will remain visible when baked.

When making homemade streusel, be sure to get the texture right. The oatmeal crisp texture should be like wet, crumbly sand. The cold butter is key here. Warm butter will just smear into the streusel and become greasy.

What is Streusel? Crisp vs. Crumble vs. Streusel vs. Cobbler

According to the official dictionary definition, streusel is “a crumbly mixture of fat, sugar, and flour and sometimes nuts and spices that is used as topping or filling for cake.”

So by that definition, crisp and crumble toppings count as streusels.

apple streusel pie in pie pan

The terms apple crisp and apple crumble are often used interchangeably. And the general idea is the same: sliced apples tossed with sugar and cinnamon on the bottom, topped with a streusel made from some combination of butter, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and perhaps nuts or oats.

But for those who sometimes like to get technical (and I count myself among those people), here’s the difference between apple crumble and apple crisp:

  • An apple crisp has a streusel topping made with oats
  • But apple crumble has a streusel topping made without oats
  • And apple cobbler has a biscuit topping

So whether you call your streusel dessert a crisp or crumble, we call it delicious.

streusel topping for crumbles crisps and pie

You’ll also love these great recipes:

  • Deep-Dish Apple Crisp With Oatmeal Streusel
  • Pumpkin Donut Muffins Rolled in Cinnamon Sugar
  • How to Make Perfect Pie Dough
  • Sour Cream Coffee Crumb Cake
Print Recipe

How to Make Homemade Streusel Topping (With Recipe)

Streusel topping makes a cinnamon-sweet, perfect topping for fruit pies, crisps, and crumbles. Here's a great all-purpose streusel recipe, and details on how to make it step by step.
And here's an easy apple crisp recipe to use your streusel!
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time0 mins
Approximate Standard Pie Baking Time50 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American, Austrian, French
Keywords:: apple crisp, apple crumble, cinnamon, dessert, easy, how to make crumble topping, how to make streusel, pie recipe
Servings: 1 recipe, enough to cover a standard 9" pie or crumble

Ingredients

  • 1 cup light brown or dark brown sugar, packed
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup; 1/4 pound) cold, unsalted butter, diced
  • ¾ cup all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup rolled oats (not quick oats)
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

  • In a mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, and salt. Stir to mix.
  • Add the diced, cold butter. Work the butter into the sugar-flour mixture with your fingers until the texture resembles coarse, damp sand. Refrigerate until ready to use.
  • Top your pie, crisp, or crumble of choice with the streusel topping. This recipe is enough for one generously-topped 9" or 10" pie.
    PRO TIP: Most streusel or crumb topping pies, crisps, and crumbles are baked at around 400°F. I suggest this excellent, easy apple crisp recipe.

Filed Under: Dessert + Baking, Easy, Recipes Tagged With: apple crisp, easy dessert, how to make crisp topping, how to make crumble topping, how to make streusel, pie recipe, streusel recipe

Sign Up for the Weekly Newsletter

Never miss a recipe.

More from Unpeeled

French Bastille Day Recipes to Celebrate the Day

French Bastille Day Recipes to Celebrate the Day

Creamy Pumpkin Pasta With Prosciutto + Sage

Creamy Pumpkin Pasta With Prosciutto + Sage

How to Fry an Egg

How to Fry an Egg

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sara W. says

    September 30, 2021 at 10:51 pm

    5 stars
    I made this as part of the apple crisp recipe and it is very delicious. I love the brown sugar and cinnamon flavor. Thank you!

    Reply
  2. Tom says

    October 4, 2021 at 5:38 pm

    5 stars
    This turned out very well. Used as part of the apple crisp as well. Could this be used for coffee cake? How many nuts would I add if I wanted to add nuts? Thank you.

    Reply
    • Unpeeled says

      October 4, 2021 at 6:34 pm

      Hi, Tom! You could certainly use this for coffee cake topping. I might add a pinch more cinnamon, and add about 3/4 cup to 1 cup walnut pieces. Enjoy!

      Reply
  3. G.G. says

    October 7, 2021 at 12:12 pm

    5 stars
    🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Welcome to Unpeeled

A celebration of cooking, baking, and food. Learn More

Digital Media Awards Winner

Popular Posts

no churn strawberry ice cream recipe with no ice cream maker
Jessica Ngo Food + Grief Project
carrot cake and cupcakes on table with carrot peels
vertican stack of buttermilk waffles with wheat flour and blueberries
red white blueberry poundcake sliced on plates with fresh berries inauguration day
plate of roasted radishes recipe with butter and herbs on tablecloth

Your inbox is hungry! Get the weekly newsletter.

Footer

About Unpeeled

Trusted recipes, cooking and baking techniques, travel guides, inspiring profiles, and lots more.

Features

  • Articles
  • Profiles
  • Taste Tests
  • Food Writing Roundups

Cooking School

  • Cooking Technique
  • Baking + Pastry Technique
  • Wine Class

Information

  • About & Contact
  • F.A.Q.s
  • Privacy Statement
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Copyright © 2023 Unpeeled Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

  • Recipes
    • Breakfast
    • Soup, Salad, Snacks
    • Dinner
    • Sides
    • Dessert + Baking
    • Holidays
    • Vegetarian + Vegan
    • Beverages
    • Easy
    • Recipe Collections
  • Features
    • Articles
    • Profiles
    • Taste Tests
    • Food Writing Roundups
  • Lifestyle
    • Wellness
    • Food Travel Guides
    • Book Club
  • Cooking School
    • Cooking Technique
    • Baking + Pastry Technique
    • Wine Class
    • Better Know a Food
  • The Food + Grief Project
    • Food That Heal
    • F+G Articles, Interviews, Essays
  • About
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter