Sweet, Crunchy, and Oh, So Good
"Take a piece; you'll like it," my friend encouraged me with a smile.
I wasn't so sure. Pumpkin pie is one of my all-time favorites, but this one was different. It had stuff on top of it. Pumpkin pie is supposed to be purely about the pumpkin, an orange orb of spiced goodness. It was not supposed to have an unidentifiable topping.
Though I was skeptical, it would have been rude to decline the traditional finish to a good Christmas dinner. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, right? And apparently these Romans put something on their pumpkin pie.
As a picky eater, it took almost all my will power to bite into the unknown. Then it took all my will power not to go over to the pie pan, stick my face smack in the middle of it and have a pumpkin pie orgy right in front of the thirty or so strangers who had so graciously allowed me to crash their holiday festivities. They might have frowned on such a display of gluttony. Or they might have taken pictures and posted them on the Internet. I'm not sure which would have been worse.
Thus I was introduced to the intoxicating power of streusel.
I come from a long line of cookie bakers. We don't experiment with fancy things with European names. Obviously I had a deprived childhood, and that pumpkin pie proved it.
It's been a year since I discovered the simple joy that brown sugar, butter and nuts can produce, but boy oh boy have I packed a lot of goodness into this year. I've made several pumpkin pies, experimenting with different streusels each time. I finally discovered the perfect combination just in time for Thanksgiving: 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup walnuts and 2 tablespoons butter. I mix it all together and put it on top of my favorite pumpkin pie recipe. The results are more delicious than you can imagine. Try it on your Christmas pie and prepare to impress even the most critical great-aunt.
My streusel frenzy didn't end with pumpkin pie. I noticed my Better Homes and Garden cookbook had a recipe for banana bread topped with streusel. Suddenly I find myself liking banana bread, even though I never cared for it previously. My husband's co-workers share the love of streusel and have asked me for the secret of my unusually tasty banana bread.
Then there are the coffee cakes. I now drool over coffee cakes.
Prior to my discovery of streusel, it never occurred to me to bake a coffee cake. I'd heard about them only in conjunction with senior-citizen coffee klatches and I'm not a senior citizen, nor do I drink coffee. Why would I bake a coffee cake? While on a streusel high, I was browsing my favorite cookbook and stumbled across a simple recipe for buttermilk coffeecake. Now I must make it regularly. The streusel topping . . . mmmm . . . can't get enough.
In fact, chocolate chip cookies are no longer a staple in my home. Instead, I bake Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake. It tastes like a chocolate chip cookie, but it has streusel. Are you sensing a theme?
I hate to admit it, but I'm a streusel-obsessed maniac. I even eat it straight from the bowl, uncooked. I need to become equally obsessed with exercise in the very near future, or there's going to be a problem around here (assuming "here" means my ever-expanding waist line).