Last Updated on May 30, 2024
The vegan streusel topping is the secret to adding a delicious layer of sweetness, crunch, and texture to baked goods and desserts. What makes it even more appealing is how easy it is to make, all it takes is just a handful of simple ingredients commonly found in any pantry.
Made with flour, chopped pecans, oil, and brown sugar. This versatile topping strikes the perfect balance between texture and indulgence, with its sweet and crumbly nature beautifully complementing various recipes.
From muffins to pear coffee cakes, and pies to fruit crisps, it offers a top-notch experience to an array of treats, elevating them to new heights.
In this guide, we’ll explore how to create this easy vegan topping with simply five ingredients, the irresistible taste it imparts, and the myriad of uses that make it a cherished addition to your culinary repertoire.
Don’t forget to bookmark this recipe and make it your baking staple! This vegan streusel topping is a must-try addition to your kitchen adventures.
What Is Streusel Topping?
A streusel topping is a crumbly mixture typically made up of flour, sugar, and fat that is used to add a sweet and crisp texture to various baked goods.
The key difference between regular streusel topping and vegan streusel topping is that the latter is made without any animal-based ingredients such as butter or milk. The addition of pecans gives it a nutty flavor and texture. The cinnamon gives it a spicy, warm, and hearty profile.
Vegan streusel topping can be used to add a sweet, crunchy, and slightly crumbly texture to muffins, cakes, pies, and other desserts.
Vegan Streusel Topping – Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- You can try this recipe on your favorite desserts from muffins to fruit slices.
- You can make substitutes for gluten-free flour to fit your GF diet.
- It adds texture and sweetness to anything you want to pair it with.
- It is healthier than your ordinary streusel crumble.
Ingredients For Homemade Vegan Streusel Topping
This recipes is enough for topping on an 8″ cake.
- ¼ cup/50g light brown sugar
- 6 tbsp/45g all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp/1g ground cinnamon
- 6 tbsp/34g chopped pecans
- 2 tbsp/30ml neutral oil or coconut oil if you like coconut flavor
- 2 tsp/10ml water
How To Make Vegan Streusel Topping
- In a small mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients, cinnamon, flour, pecans, brown sugar, and oil.
- Stir until everything is well combined.
- Add the 2 teaspoons of water and stir until a clumps of crumble form. You can use a whisk or a fork to help form the vegan streusel topping.
- Crumble with your fingertips into small clumps. Sprinkle a generous amount on cinnamon streusel or vegan muffins as topping and serve. Or you can control the portion by adding a tablespoon of the vegan streusel topping on each serving of your baked goodies like muffins or slices of cake.
Tips, Variations, And Substitutions
🥮 Vegan butter – You can use this instead of oil. It helps form those sweet clumps of streusel topping. coconut oil can be used as well for the same purpose. Use 2 tablespoons as well.
🥮 Whole wheat flour – If you want to add more fiber to this recipe use this flour instead. Just remember that wheat flour is not gluten-free.
🥮 Almonds – If you want to change things up or if you don’t have pecans you can still have a crunchy and nutty component by adding crushed almonds.
🥮 Oats – This is a great addition to the vegan streusel topping. It will give you energy, increase fiber, and add more health benefits to this recipe. You can toast these in a preheated oven or pan on the stovetop to give it a nuttier flavor.
🥮 Coconut sugar or palm sugar– If you want an alternative to brown sugar, use coconut sugar instead.
Uses For This Vegan Cinnamon Streusel Crumble
🥮 Muffins – Sprinkle some of this sweet crumble on muffin batter before baking them to add texture and sweetness to them. This vegan blueberry muffin recipe is a great base.
🥮 Cupcakes – A great pocket-sized dessert that’s great for all occasions. Add this as a garnish on top. Look at a special recipe for your special someone for Valentine’s here.
🥮 Cookies – Nothing beats a batch of warm homemade cookies. You can add this to the cookie batter or dough before baking.
🥮 Oatmeal – This is a fantastic way to enjoy breakfast. Just remember to let your oatmeal cool completely or reach room temperature first as adding the streusel sprinkle will clump up with your oatmeal.
🥮 Baking powder – This will add an airy texture to this recipe. Baking soda needs an acidic ingredient which this element lacks.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can add this as a rustic garnish to cakes, pies, bread puddings, and all the other desserts or sweet bread that you can think of. The sky is the limit!
Use cold butter cut into cubes. Room temperature or melted butter will cause the streusel to flatten out instead of remaining in chunks.
The term streusel comes from the German word streuen, which means to scatter or sprinkle.
Streusel is a very common addition to German and Austrian desserts like kuchen and crumb cake.
Vegan Streusel Topping Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- 6 tbsp all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 6 tbsp chopped pecans
- 2 tbsp neutral oil (Note)
- 2 tsp water
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients, cinnamon, flour, pecans, brown sugar, and oil.
- Stir until everything is well combined.
- Add the 2 teaspoons of water and stir until a clumps of crumble form. You can use a whisk or a fork to help form the vegan streusel topping.
- Crumble with your fingertips into small clumps. Sprinkle a generous amount on cinnamon streusel or vegan muffins as topping and serve. Or you can control the portion by adding a tablespoon of the vegan streusel topping on each serving of your baked goodies like muffins or slices of cake.