Well, the melted butter recipe I tried today was new, so I'll stick to my usual one. I mix the dry ingredients together--cinnamon, flour, and brown sugar usually, but sometimes oats and/or other spices. I then remove a stick of butter from the fridge and cut it into 20 or 24 pieces--little cubes--which I put in the dry ingredients. Finally, I mix it all around with my hands, squeezing the butter into smaller lumps as it softens enough to allow this. I try to work as much of the dry stuff into the lumps as I can, without melting them. By the end of it, I usually end up with buttery lumps somewhat smaller than marbles, plus a ton of extra dry ingredient mixture that has nothing with which to combine. Plus, my lumps are rather soft, and even if I refrigerate the whole thing, it just never seems… right. > On Aug 1, 2015, at 9:36 PM, janbrown <[email protected]> wrote: > > I have never had this particular and I can't fathom why you are having it. > The course crumbs thing is most important so you don't have isolated flour > pockets. > It is tough to know when you work it enough or too much. > Use your hands and allow some coolness in the butter. > Mix until good old course crumbs take shape. > It ought to work. > Can you describe precisely what you do? > > Sent from my iPhone > >> On Aug 1, 2015, at 4:05 PM, Alex Hall via Cookinginthedark >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Hey all, >> Yet again, I tried to make a streusel topping, this time for some baked >> pumpkin oatmeal. My sister made this recipe last week and it was perfect. I >> made the same recipe, following the same instructions, and the oatmeal was >> perfect. My topping, though, tasted like baked flour more than the brown >> sugar/cinnamon/butter mix it should have. >> >> I've never once made a good streusel/crumb topping. I've tried with and >> without flour, I've used cold or melted butter, I've tried with and without >> oats, I've used different ratios… A streusel is supposed to have the >> consistency of gravel, with the sugars and spices surrounding small bits of >> butter (or clumped together with some flour, in the case of recipes using >> melted butter) Those small pieces then crisp up in the oven and provide a >> wonderful experience for the top of your oatmeal, coffee cake, muffins, >> whatever.. Mine is always either way too chunky; so fine that it melts in >> the oven; never crisps up; or (like today) tastes--and has the unpleasant >> texture--of flour. I don't know what else to do, and no one has been able to >> show me in person how to do this right. I'm to the point where i either ask >> someone else to make my topping, or make it myself, knowing it'll be >> anywhere between "tastes okay but doesn't have the texture of streusel" to >> "tastes like baked flour and has no spice flavor at all". It's incredibly >> frustrating, because other than this, I'm actually a good cook. For whatever >> reason, streusel-like toppings are the one thing I simply cannot master, >> though I've been trying for years. >> >> My question, then, is simple: how do you all do it, particularly those of >> you for whom streusel works out well? I know it can be done by hand, because >> I've never seen a streusel that comes out tasting great be prepared in any >> kind of machine. I just don't know the procedure, and if I do, I'm messing >> it up somewhere along the way. Maybe I'm mixing too long? Not long enough? >> Working it too much? Is my butter too big? Should the cold butter warm up >> enough so I can mold it or not (I've been told both yes and no on that >> one)?. Thanks in advance. >> >> -- >> Have a great day, >> Alex Hall >> [email protected] >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Cookinginthedark mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://acbradio.org/mailman/listinfo/cookinginthedark >> >>
-- Have a great day, Alex Hall [email protected] _______________________________________________ Cookinginthedark mailing list [email protected] http://acbradio.org/mailman/listinfo/cookinginthedark
