Streusel-crumble (crunchy)

Biscuit base for cakes, intended to be placed on top of an already prepared cake, such as a mousse or a crémeux.
baked
cake
dessert
vegetarian
Ingredients
Servings
1
Measurement units

Ingredients

  • 125 gbutter (fridge-cold)
  • 125 gbrown sugar
  • 125 gplain flour (or pastry flour)
  • 125 galmond flour
  • 70 gcovering chocolate (optional)
Nutritional Information

Per 100 g

Calories
523 kcal
Protein
8.2 g
Fat
33.2 g
Carbohydrates
50 g

Calculated from reviewed ingredient weights and pinned USDA FoodData Central records.

Step-by-step Guide

Preparation

  1. Mix the brown sugar, flour, and almond flour in a bowl, and stir well.
  2. Gradually add the cold butter, cut into cubes.
  3. The mixture should have an earthy, quite granular texture.
  4. Do not knead the dough; pinch it together, as when making shortcrust pastry.
  5. Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  6. Crumble the dough into medium-sized pieces; you can do this by rubbing pieces over a rack.
  7. Grease the mould with butter. It must be a ring or a springform mould so that it can be unmoulded properly.
  8. Line the sides and base of the mould by pressing the pieces of dough against the inside.
  9. Bake at 140 ºC for 20 minutes (the last time it needed 30 minutes).
  10. If you want to make the pastry slightly waterproof once baked, brush the inside with melted chocolate when it is at 31 ºC.

Chocolate variation

  1. Mix the brown sugar, flour, and almond flour in a bowl, and stir well.
  2. Gradually add the cold butter, cut into cubes.
  3. The mixture should have an earthy, quite granular texture.
  4. Do not knead the dough; pinch it together, as when making shortcrust pastry.
  5. Then spread it over baking paper.
  6. Bake it at 165 ºC for 25 minutes.
  7. If you make it a day ahead, give it a quick bake the next day to remove the moisture.
  8. Separately, melt the chocolate in a bain-marie until it reaches about 38 ºC.
  9. Remove it from the bain-marie and pour 3/4 of it onto the marble. Using a spatula, spread it out and cool it.
  10. When you see that the texture is beginning to thicken, gather this chocolate, return it to the container holding the other 1/4, and stir so that it mixes well.
  11. The final temperature must be 31 ºC.
  12. Gradually add the melted chocolate to the bowl of crunchy mixture and mix it with your open hand, wearing gloves, without pressing or crushing it.
  13. Take a low cylinder of the same diameter as the mousse, crémeux, etc. will be, and place it on a piece of baking paper.
  14. Fill the mould and compact the dough with a spatula.
  15. Make the bases by placing a piece of baking paper under the cylinder so you can later put them in the freezer for a while.
  16. If you make individual cakes, remove each finished base and reuse the mould to make others.
  17. Put the prepared base or bases in the freezer for 30 minutes so that they firm up.
  18. A while before serving it at the table, take the cake you already have prepared and place the streusel-crumble base on top.
  19. Turn it over so that the base is underneath and unmould the cake.
Recommendations & Tricks
  • It is a biscuit base for cakes: have the cake (mousse, cream, etc.) ready in advance.
  • The chocolate can be white or dark according to the cake: dark for a mousse or white for a strawberry cake.
Original recipe
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    Streusel-crumble (crunchy) | The Catalan Table