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Top Mixture
2 tablespoons flour 1 tablespoon cinnamon 3 tablespoons sugar 3 tablespoons shortening Mix dry ingredients; rub in shortening and spread thickly over top of dough before baking.
This is a streusel topping meant for coffee cake or sweet rolls, not a standalone item. It is written as a component, so the quantities and handling matter more than any timing.
- What it makesRoughly half a cup of crumb, enough for a modest covering on one 8- or 9-inch coffee cake or a pan of rolls. Double it if you like a thick, distinctly cobbled top.
- ShorteningIn a book of this period this means solid vegetable shortening or lard, at room temperature. Cold butter cut in with fingertips or a pastry blender gives better flavour and a crumblier set, and is a common modern substitution one for one.
- Rub in, don't creamThe hinge of the recipe. Work the fat into the dry mix only until it forms loose pea-sized crumbs. Once it goes smooth and paste-like it will melt into a glaze rather than sit on top as crumb.
- A tablespoon of cinnamonThat is a strong ratio against three tablespoons of sugar. Halve it if your cinnamon is fresh and assertive.
- Spread thickly before bakingApply to risen, unbaked dough. Press very lightly so it adheres; heavy pressing deflates the proof and the topping sinks.
- BakingNo oven is given because the topping takes the temperature of whatever it sits on, typically 350-375F for a coffee cake. If the crumb is browning well before the crumb of the cake is set, tent loosely with foil.
- KeepingThe unbaked mixture holds a week refrigerated or several months frozen in a bag. Break up any clumps with a fork before scattering.
Toppings of this sort descend from German Streusel, literally "something scattered," carried into American baking by German-speaking immigrants and established in Pennsylvania and the Midwest. The recipe is printed without an oven temperature or a base, which suggests it was meant to be read alongside cake and roll recipes on the surrounding pages.