The Streusel Bread Experiment

Last month (or perhaps the month before that) I saw "Walnut Streusel Bread" on the cover of Cooking Light Magazine and thought that I might want to try making a "quick" bread other than banana bread for once.

I altered their recipe a bit and made an Orange Almond Streusel Bread instead. I also kept saying the word "streusel" in a ridiculous Arnold/Hans/Franz type accent which isn't a required step in the recipe, but sure makes it more fun!

Ingredients:
Streusel:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup quick oats (instant oatmeal)
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon of salt
3 1/2 tablespoons melted butter*
2 teaspoons orange extract
3 tablespoons sliced almonds

Bread:
9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 tablespoons melted butter*
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
Baking spray with flour

*Overall this is 1 stick of butter between the streusel and the bread

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Prepare Streusel
Combine brown sugar and water in bowl. Add oats, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Stir together until well mixed. Add melted butter and orange extract to the mix and stir it all together. Add the almonds in and stir some more. Put it off to the side and get your bread ingredients ready.

3. Prepare Bread
Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and put aside.

Beat melted butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl until well blended, then add eggs in and blend together

Beating at low speed, add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture; beat just until combined.

Scrape half of batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with baking spray; sprinkle with 1/3 of streusel mixture.

Spread remaining batter over streusel.

Sprinkle remaining streusel on top of batter.

Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.

I thought the streusel bread was nice. It had a light, delicate flavor and is something that goes well with a cup of coffee or tea. A great breakfast pastry I think. The bread perhaps could use some more flavor depending on what you're looking for. I've decided that this is an excellent "base recipe" to make some more flavorful streusel breads.

Tonight I made a second streusel bread that swapped the orange and vanilla flavors. I added 2 teaspoons of orange extract to the bread batter to make an orange bread and used 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract in the streusel to make a vanilla almond crunch. I think it's much more flavorful this way. Super yummy now.

I still have half a container of buttermilk to use and I think I am going to try some more flavor combinations. I might use coconut oil in the batter instead of butter and add coconut flakes to the streusel to make a toasted almond coconut bread. Another idea is to go heavy on the cinnamon in the streusel to make a coffee cake like bread. A maple walnut or maple pecan version also sounds nice. There are many possibilities with this one!