Crumb topping
A sweet, crumbly mixture of flour, sugar and butter, often spiced with cinnamon, scattered over cakes, muffins, pies and fruit desserts before baking.
- Fillings, creams, frostings and sauces
Crumb topping is made by rubbing cold butter into flour and sugar, or by stirring in melted butter, until the mixture forms clumps of different sizes. Many recipes use roughly equal weights of butter, sugar and flour. Brown sugar adds a caramel flavor, and oats or chopped nuts add crunch.
Chilling the topping before use helps the clumps hold their shape in the oven instead of melting into a flat layer. The German version is called streusel, and a thick layer of it is the signature of crumb cake and many coffee cakes.