Use this crumble topping over your muffins, pies, quick breads, and more! You can even bake it as is on a sheet pan, and use it as a mix-in for yogurts or parfaits, cheesecakes, ice cream, and pancakes.
It is easily customizable and freezes very well, making it a great prep-ahead recipe.
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❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- You won’t need any special equipment. Simply mix everything in one bowl with a fork! Then, bake it according to your recipe.
- It’s incredibly versatile. You can use it as topping or mix-in to your favorite desserts like ice cream, fruit pies, muffins, parfaits, or even breakfast staples like yogurt and chia pudding.
Ingredients
To make crumble topping from scratch, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- For the flour, you can swap out some with whole wheat or nut flour!
- You can use a combination of your favorite spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, and ginger.
- Use different types of chopped nuts like almonds, pecans, walnuts, or pistachios.
For the full list of ingredients and measurements, see the recipe card below.
💡 Baking Tip
- Brown your butter. For a deeper, more complex, and toastier flavor profile, browning your butter is a game changer. Check out my simple brown butter recipe for step-by-step instructions. It’s very easy, I promise!
- Feel free to batch make this recipe. You can easily double or triple this recipe so you’ll have a large batch in the freezer, ready to be used for whenever.
How to Make Crumble Topping
Step 1: In your large mixing bowl, thoroughly combine granulated sugar, brown sugar, all-purpose flour, rolled oats, fine sea salt, and spices.
Step 2: Drizzle in melted butter and mix with fork until combined and no dry spots remain, but still clumpy. Do not overmix, since you don’t want to form a dough! Bake crumble according to your recipe instructions.
For full instructions, see the recipe card below.
Crumble Topping FAQs
At their core, they are all made with flour, butter, and sugar.
In the USA, crumble often includes oats + spices, and is much chunkier in texture. It’s commonly added on top of fruit desserts, donuts, or cakes.
Crisp usually includes oats and is not as chunky as crumble. It’s mainly used as a topping on fruit desserts, like apple crisp.
Streusel is a finer, sandier topping without oats. It’s commonly used on muffins, coffee cakes, and pastries.
Storage
Store crumble topping in a ziploc bag in the freezer for up to 3 months, and use it whenever!
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📖 Recipe & Video
Crumble Topping
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Equipment
- Kitchen scale or measuring cups
- fork
Ingredients
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (110 g) brown sugar
- 1 cup (125 g) all purpose flour
- ½ cup (40.91 g) rolled oats
- ¼ teaspoon (1.5 g) fine sea salt
- ½ to 1 ½ teaspoon (1 g) spices you can do a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, etc.
- 5 tablespoons (70 g) butter melted and cooled
Instructions
- In your large mixing bowl, combine ½ cup granulated sugar, ½ cup brown sugar,1 cup all purpose flour, ½ cup rolled oats, ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt, and ½ to 1 ½ teaspoon spices.
- Drizzle in melted 5 tablespoons butter and mix with fork until combined and no dry spots remain, but still clumpy. Do not over mix, since you don't want to form a dough!
- Use and bake crumble according to recipe instructions. You can sprinkle it on top of muffins, quick breads, or pies ready to be baked. Or, you can bake the crumble as is on a lined sheet pan at 350°F for 15-20 minutes, stirring halfway through, and sprinkle it on top of yogurt, ice cream, pancakes, etc.
Notes
- Feel free to add 1/4 of chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, peanuts, pistachios, etc.)
- Brown the butter for extra toasty flavor!
