Streusel, a love story

You never forget your first streusel. I was hosting a housewarming party at my very first apartment and wanted to bake a dessert using the Asian pears I’d harvested from my grandpa’s trees. I settled on a simple crisp. Still warm from the oven, each buttery, craggy cluster of streusel was only enhanced by the softly baked fruit beneath. The genius (and relative ease) of a fruit crisp felt revelatory to me, a 22-year-old new to baking, cooking, and generally figuring out how to feed herself.

Seasons pass, years go by, one apartment is swapped for another (this one with a bigger kitchen), and I grew as a baker too. I graduated from quick crumbles and expanded my repertoire to more ambitious streusel-centric recipes, because you never forget your first love. I made homemade halva for this sesame-heavy coffee cake, which is topped with a nutty pecan and black sesame streusel, and labored over a flaky pie crust so I could make a streusel-topped fruit pie. I even started making big batches of streusel to keep in my freezer, sometimes just baking it right on a sheet pan to eat like granola.

So I’ll admit, it’s my love of streusel that drew me to this Emancipation Breakfast Cake from Adrian Lipscombe. At its heart, it’s everything I love about a great streusel bake: a tender cake studded with fresh fruit and generously topped with ginger-spiced walnut streusel crumbs. And, as its name suggests, the cake is tied to Juneteenth celebrations in Texas, where blueberries are at their peak, making this a fitting cake to bake this week.

One of the appeals of streusel is how you can make it your own: swap the all-purpose flour for rye and add cocoa powder, throw in a Sichuan peppercorn, or use brown butter ghee (!) in place of the butter. But I’ll always have a soft spot (and the ingredients on hand) for the first streusel I made, which is the simplest of streusels — and, to me, the most perfect.

• Next on my streusel list: David Lebovitz’s Apricot Cherry Crisp.

• I’m really enjoying watching all the World Cup tourists get excited about trying American food.

• During this Summer of Pizza, take a (virtual) pizza road trip across the country.

• My new favorite King Arthur mix just so happens to have streusel in it.

• Mark your calendars: Our next Substack Live will be on July 1 at 12:00 p.m. with Alexandra Stafford (Pizza Every Friday)!