Quick and Easy

Streusel for Pies

by:
October 29, 2020
3.7
3 Ratings
Streusel for Pies
  • Prep time 25 minutes
  • Makes about 2 cups (enough to top one 9-inch pie)
Author Notes

This is a great all-purpose streusel recipe for baking on top of pies. It makes large clumps that bake up slightly crisp on the outside, then soft in the middle. You can add other ingredients to your streusel to flavor it—sometimes I add a splash of vanilla or almond extract, and I often throw in additional spices like cloves, nutmeg, or ginger.

Excerpted from THE BOOK ON PIE © 2020 by Erin Jeanne McDowell. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
—Erin Jeanne McDowell

What You'll Need
Watch This Recipe
Streusel for Pies
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup (40 grams) old-fashioned oats
  • 1/2 cup (60 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 4 tablespoons (57 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Directions
  1. In a medium bowl, stir the oats, all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon to combine. Cut the butter into tablespoon portions and drop them into the bowl. Mix with your hands or a pastry cutter until the mixture comes together to form large clumps.
  2. To use, crumble the streusel over the top of a pie that requires baking and bake as the recipe instructs. If the topping is browning too quickly, tent it with foil for the remainder of the bake time.
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Erin Jeanne McDowell
I always have three kinds of hot sauce in my purse. I have a soft spot for making people their favorite dessert, especially if it's wrapped in a pastry crust. My newest cookbook, Savory Baking, came out in Fall of 2022 - is full of recipes to translate a love of baking into recipes for breakfast, dinner, and everything in between!

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4 Reviews

aharker
aharker June 23, 2021
Recipe is missing the sugar amount - please update :)
 
BreadBaker
BreadBaker August 5, 2021
1/4 cup (53 grams) packed light brown sugar
(This is the measure published in The Book on Pie on page 120)
 
Rc C.
Rc C. November 22, 2020
love your tutorial and pie series,:) in this recipe how much brown sugar is needed its not indicated
 
Charleen
Charleen November 20, 2020
I know I am in the minority so please forgive me but I really hate oats and will never use them in a recipe. Any recipe!