Recipe: Old-Fashioned Oat Streusel Topping

Old-Fashioned Oat Streusel Topping

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• combine :

  to merge two or more ingredients into one mixture, like a batter of flour, eggs, and milk.

• cut in :

  to mix a cold, solid fat, like butter or shortening, into a dry ingredient, like flour, until there are particles of fat covered with the dry ingredient. The recipe might call for "pea size" particles or a mixture that looks like "coarse meal." You can use a pastry blender, two knives, or your fingers to cut in the fat.

• toast :

  to brown and crisp food in a heated skillet or oven, or in a toaster.

What is Streusel?

• "Streusel" (German pronunciation: STROY-zel) means "something scattered or sprinkled" in German. In American English, it is pronounced STROO-sel. Traditionally, streusel is a sweet crumb topping. It can also refer to a cake or pastry with a streusel topping.
• Streusel originated in Germany sometime in the 17th century. The crumb topping was added to a yeast cake called "streuselkuchen" (streusel cake), which was a popular dessert for special occasions. German immigrants to the United States brought their crumb cake recipes with them.
• The main ingredients for the crumb topping are sugar, butter, and flour, and their ratio is about one part sugar, one part butter, and two parts flour. Other possible ingredients include oats, nuts, and cinnamon or other spices.
• A savory streusel topping may replace the sugar with bread crumbs, cheese, salt, spices, or grated or minced vegetables. A savory streusel might be good on savory pies, macaroni and cheese or other casseroles, salads, soups, and vegetable dishes.
• A sweet streusel can top cakes, doughnuts, fruit crisps, ice cream, muffins, pies, and quick breads.

Let's Learn About Germany!

• The central European country of Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is known as "Deutschland" (DOYCH-lunt) in the German language. It is a federal parliamentary republic with a president, a chancellor (the head of the government), and a legislature.
• Germany has over 83 million people in an area of 137,847 square miles, a little smaller than the U.S. state of Montana.
• The capital and largest city in Germany is Berlin, but only since 1990 when East and West Germany reunified. Before that, East and West Germany were divided by the Berlin Wall, built after World War II to keep Eastern citizens from fleeing to the West. The Berlin Wall kept the two sides of Germany separated for 28 years. The wall finally crumbled in November 1989, and you can see segments of the original wall in many places in Germany and other countries.
• Germany was the first country in the world to adopt Daylight Savings Time. This was done in 1916 during World War I to conserve fuel.
• Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Germany, and the German Football Association is the largest single-sport league worldwide. Motorsports are also big in Germany, with three well-known German carmakers heavily involved, BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche.
• Hamburg, Germany, has the most bridges in the world. The city has more than 2,300 bridges!
• In Germany, undergraduate university education is free, even to international students. Although a few programs are taught in both English and German, a student would need a firm knowledge of the German language to attend most universities. Germany also has a vocational education system that combines learning with company apprenticeships.
• Germany is known for its sausages, and some, like "bratwursts" or "brats," are popular in the United States. Over 850 million "currywursts" (curry sausages sold on the street) are eaten in Germany per year! Bread, cheese, and beer are also significant parts of German cuisine.
• During World War II, Coca-Cola syrup could not come into the country due to a US trade embargo with Nazi Germany. This resulted in the company's German division inventing Fanta soda, what we now know as an orange soda. However, the modern version was developed in Italy in the 1950s. They initially made the early German version with whey (the liquid left after making cheese), apple pomace (the pulp left from making apple juice), and beet sugar. 
• The Autobahn is a famous access highway in Germany. It is over 8,000 miles long, and many parts have no enforceable speed limit. People travel from around the world to drive fast cars on the Autobahn. It's illegal to run out of gas on this highway!

What's It Like to Be a Kid in Germany?

• In Germany, often both parents work, and every child under three can go to daycare. Kids can start kindergarten from 3 to 5 years old. 
• On the first day of first grade, parents give their children a giant cone filled with toys, candy, and school supplies. The school cone is called a "schultüte," celebrating an important rite of passage in their young lives. 
• Popular sports for youth include football (soccer), handball, and gymnastics. Kids primarily participate in a sport through a sports club, and there are thousands of sports clubs in Germany for almost every sport. 
• German kids can visit one of the biggest zoos in the world, the Zoologischer Garten Berlin (Berlin Zoological Garden). Although its size isn't the largest, it houses the most animal species worldwide. The zoo opened in 1844 and its aquarium in 1913. 
• There are several amusement and theme parks in Germany, and if kids are familiar with stories from the Brothers Grimm, families can drive the German Fairy Tale Route (Deutsche Märchenstraße) that runs 370 miles. The route passes through scenic nature parks and charming villages, and several places on the way relate to the fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood's house, Sleeping Beauty's castle, and the Pied Piper's town of Hamelin. Speaking of castles, you can also visit the Neuschwanstein Castle in the Bavarian Alps, which may have inspired Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle.