I love making pastry. Very easy. Wash your hands well. Combine dry ingredients for your crust. Now it is important you don't just take the butter out of the fridge. Take it out ahead of time and let it soften. Then, place in the middle of the dry mixture and knead until all the butter disappears into the dry ingredients and forms very small clumps, kind of like some kind of meal or like Bisquick. If you are paranoid about using you fingers which is what I prefer, a good pastry cutter or 2 butter knives cutting opposite ways can work. Just make sure to turn the bowl often and check with your fingers if it is working and you habeen cutting the butter. Pampered Chef has a great pastry cutter.
*smile* Regina Marie Phone: 916-877-4320 Email: reginamariemu...@gmail.com Follow me: http://www.twitter.com/mamaraquel Find Me: http://www.facebook.com/reginamarie Listen Live: http://www.jandjfm.com -----Original Message----- From: Peggy Carpenter via Cookinginthedark [mailto:cookinginthedark@acbradio.org] Sent: Monday, August 03, 2015 10:35 AM To: cookinginthedark@acbradio.org; Alex Hall Subject: Re: [CnD] I have a huge streusel problem Hi, I have used a pastry blender or just cut/broken up the butter into small pea sizes. Sounds like your marble size might be too big. Don’t give up and try smaller pieces. > On Aug 1, 2015, at 11:11 PM, Alex Hall via Cookinginthedark > <cookinginthedark@acbradio.org> wrote: > > I certainly could be. I think I have two problems: how small should the > pieces of butter be, and how firm? By the time I'm done, the butter pieces > are about the consistency of soft modeling clay and, as I said, not quite as > big as marbles. >> On Aug 1, 2015, at 11:06 PM, Debbra Piening <debbra.pien...@att.net> wrote: >> >> I mix the dry ingredients, then lay the cold stick of butter on top and use >> two knives to cut the butter into the dry ingredients, checking with my >> hands from time to time until I have the right consistency. I've never had >> a problem doing it that way. I wonder if you could be handling the streusel >> a bit too much. >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Alex Hall via Cookinginthedark [mailto:cookinginthedark@acbradio.org] >> Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2015 8:46 PM >> To: janbrown >> Cc: [cookinginthedark@acbradio.org] >> Subject: Re: [CnD] I have a huge streusel problem >> >> Well, the melted butter recipe I tried today was new, so I'll stick to my >> usual one. I mix the dry ingredients together--cinnamon, flour, and brown >> sugar usually, but sometimes oats and/or other spices. I then remove a stick >> of butter from the fridge and cut it into 20 or 24 pieces--little >> cubes--which I put in the dry ingredients. Finally, I mix it all around with >> my hands, squeezing the butter into smaller lumps as it softens enough to >> allow this. I try to work as much of the dry stuff into the lumps as I can, >> without melting them. By the end of it, I usually end up with buttery lumps >> somewhat smaller than marbles, plus a ton of extra dry ingredient mixture >> that has nothing with which to combine. Plus, my lumps are rather soft, and >> even if I refrigerate the whole thing, it just never seems… right. >>> On Aug 1, 2015, at 9:36 PM, janbrown <janbr...@samobile.net> wrote: >>> >>> I have never had this particular and I can't fathom why you are having it. >>> The course crumbs thing is most important so you don't have isolated flour >>> pockets. >>> It is tough to know when you work it enough or too much. >>> Use your hands and allow some coolness in the butter. >>> Mix until good old course crumbs take shape. >>> It ought to work. >>> Can you describe precisely what you do? >>> >>> Sent from my iPhone >>> >>>> On Aug 1, 2015, at 4:05 PM, Alex Hall via Cookinginthedark >>>> <cookinginthedark@acbradio.org> wrote: >>>> >>>> Hey all, >>>> Yet again, I tried to make a streusel topping, this time for some baked >>>> pumpkin oatmeal. My sister made this recipe last week and it was perfect. >>>> I made the same recipe, following the same instructions, and the oatmeal >>>> was perfect. My topping, though, tasted like baked flour more than the >>>> brown sugar/cinnamon/butter mix it should have. >>>> >>>> I've never once made a good streusel/crumb topping. I've tried with and >>>> without flour, I've used cold or melted butter, I've tried with and >>>> without oats, I've used different ratios… A streusel is supposed to have >>>> the consistency of gravel, with the sugars and spices surrounding small >>>> bits of butter (or clumped together with some flour, in the case of >>>> recipes using melted butter) Those small pieces then crisp up in the oven >>>> and provide a wonderful experience for the top of your oatmeal, coffee >>>> cake, muffins, whatever.. Mine is always either way too chunky; so fine >>>> that it melts in the oven; never crisps up; or (like today) tastes--and >>>> has the unpleasant texture--of flour. I don't know what else to do, and no >>>> one has been able to show me in person how to do this right. I'm to the >>>> point where i either ask someone else to make my topping, or make it >>>> myself, knowing it'll be anywhere between "tastes okay but doesn't have >>>> the texture of streusel" to "tastes like baked flour and has no spice >>>> flavor at all". It's incredibly frustrating, because other than this, I'm >>>> actually a good cook. For whatever reason, streusel-like toppings are the >>>> one thing I simply cannot master, though I've been trying for years. >>>> >>>> My question, then, is simple: how do you all do it, particularly those of >>>> you for whom streusel works out well? I know it can be done by hand, >>>> because I've never seen a streusel that comes out tasting great be >>>> prepared in any kind of machine. I just don't know the procedure, and if I >>>> do, I'm messing it up somewhere along the way. Maybe I'm mixing too long? >>>> Not long enough? Working it too much? Is my butter too big? Should the >>>> cold butter warm up enough so I can mold it or not (I've been told both >>>> yes and no on that one)?. Thanks in advance. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Have a great day, >>>> Alex Hall >>>> mehg...@icloud.com >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Cookinginthedark mailing list >>>> Cookinginthedark@acbradio.org >>>> http://acbradio.org/mailman/listinfo/cookinginthedark >>>> >>>> >> >> >> -- >> Have a great day, >> Alex Hall >> mehg...@icloud.com >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Cookinginthedark mailing list >> Cookinginthedark@acbradio.org >> http://acbradio.org/mailman/listinfo/cookinginthedark >> >> > > > -- > Have a great day, > Alex Hall > mehg...@icloud.com > > _______________________________________________ > Cookinginthedark mailing list > Cookinginthedark@acbradio.org > http://acbradio.org/mailman/listinfo/cookinginthedark > > _______________________________________________ Cookinginthedark mailing list Cookinginthedark@acbradio.org http://acbradio.org/mailman/listinfo/cookinginthedark _______________________________________________ Cookinginthedark mailing list Cookinginthedark@acbradio.org http://acbradio.org/mailman/listinfo/cookinginthedark
