The Streuselkuchen is a German cake made with yeast dough topped with streusel, a crumbly mixture of sugar, fat, and flour in a 1:1:2 ratio.
Butter is often the most used fat, so much so that the cake is often called Butterstreuseln or Butterstreuselkuchen.
According to the guidelines of the German food code, butter Streuselkuchen must contain at least 30 parts of butter or equivalent amounts of fat in the dough and streusel and should not contain other fats.
It was once known mainly in Saxony and Silesia, where it is filled with quark cheese, now it is popular throughout Germany.
Generally plain, it can be topped with fruits like apples, apricots, vanilla cream, fruit compotes, and decorated with powdered sugar or glaze.
My Christmas version dedicated to the character of the Grinch enriches the streusel with Ethos spirulina, giving it the green color of the creature created by the pen of Dr. Seuss (an American with German origins) and transforming it into Grinch Streuselkuchen, with a ricotta filling.
You can purchase Ethos spirulina on the website.
The terms crisp and crumble refer to desserts made with a streusel (shortcrust-like) topping of brown sugar sometimes containing old-fashioned oats.
You can also find a recipe on the blog:
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 15 Minutes
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 8 people
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: German
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for a 10/11-inch pan:
- 1.75 oz butter
- 4 cups flour
- 1 egg
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 8.8 oz ricotta
- to taste ground cinnamon
- to taste powdered sugar
- 3 1/3 cups flour
- 7.05 oz butter
- 7.05 oz sugar
- 3 tsp Spirulina
Tools
- 1 Baking pan for cake
Steps
Dissolve the yeast in warm milk.
Prepare the yeast dough by mixing butter with flour, add the egg, milk with yeast, and sugar.
Let it rise for about 25 minutes.
Prepare the streusel: combine the ingredients and mix them with your hands until a sandy texture forms.
Spread the risen dough in a pan with parchment paper, spread ricotta, add cinnamon, and then cover with the streusel.
Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes.
Once cooled, sprinkle the streuselkuchen with powdered sugar and, if desired, with sprinkles or colored confetti.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
Is the Grinch only a literary character?
No, there are some film and TV adaptations:
– How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!) – 1966 television special directed by Chuck Jones and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which became very popular. The Grinch was voiced in the original language by Boris Karloff and in Italian by Marco Balbi.
– Brief sequences of the animated cartoon appear in the films ““Home Alone” (1990) and “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992).
– The Grinch (Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas) – 2000 film directed by Ron Howard and produced by Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, live-action. The film received a lukewarm critical reception but was a box office hit and won the Oscar for best makeup in 2001.
The character was played by Canadian actor and comedian Jim Carrey, with the Italian voice by Stefano Benassi.
– The Grinch – 2018 animated film directed by Yarrow Cheney and Scott Mosier, produced by Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment. The voice of the Grinch in the original dubbing is provided by Benedict Cumberbatch, while the Italian voice is Alessandro Gassman.
