Streuselkuchen aka Streusel topped Cake aka Tennis Team norishment aka "fruit pizza"

Streuselkuchen

In Germany, most bakeries sell Streuselkuchen.  My mom made it from scratch and showed me how.  One of my brothers calls it "fruit pizza" because it is made with a sweetened pizza-like dough, covered with fruit (like plums, pluots, applesauce, etc.) and then topped with streusel crumbs.  My friend, Lura, had a green pluot tree in her backyard and that fruit made an amazing, memorable streusel kuchen.

Steusel crumbs are made with 1 cup softened butter, some salt mixed into 1 cup of flour (or more) and 3/4 cup of sugar more or less.  I sometimes add some lemon juice like 1 Tbsp. I add lemon juice  to make the streusel dough crispier/crunchier.   The very best batch of Streuselkuchen I made was during the summer of 2011 because the streusel had a great texture.  It was crispy and tasty.

When I taught in Zarqa, Jordan and in Beirut Lebanon I was inspired to make streusel kuchen because the plums were so tasty. 

The sweetened pizza dough:
2 cups flour and 1 tsp salt mixed with 1/3 cup sugar (more or less is okay)
My husband noticed that the yeast doesn't like touching high concentrations of salt.  The salt can keep the yeast from rising and even kill it.
1 package of yeast (2 1/4 tsp.) dissolved in 2/3 cup of warm water and a Tbsp of sugar (or more) and
2 Tbsp of vegetable oil.

Put the 2/3 cup warm water in a measuring cup.  Mix in the Tbsp of sugar and the package of yeast into the water.  Cover with a clean towel and put in a warm place.  Don't let there be a draft on the yeast.

Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients for the crust:  2 cups flour, 1/3 cups of sugar and 1 tsp. salt
together in a plastic or glass mixing bowl.  My husband also noticed that yeast doesn't like touching metal as much as it likes plastic or glass so try not to use a metal bowl or metal spoons.  Pour the yeast mixture into the dry ingredients when the yeast starts to bubble.  Mix the liquid and dry ingredients together to form a ball.  Don't forget to add the oil.  I have used corn oil, coconut oil, etc. You may need to add/sprinkle more flour in at this point to form a dough ball that doesn't stick to your hands.  Put the dough ball out on the counter and start to kneed it.  The dough should feel soft, springy and nice to the touch. Good work!  Then put the dough back in the plastic or glass bowl and cover with the clean cloth.  Put in a non-drafty location.  My mom used to put the dough on a picnic table bench in front of the fire place.  Let the dough rise until it is twice the size.

Stretch the dough (and toss it if you can like a pizza parlor employee) so it fits into a jelly roll pan or in a cookie sheet with sides.  Make a few fork holes so the dough doesn't blister while it is baking.  If the dough is too small and doesn't fit into the cookie sheet I let it rise again on the cookie sheet covered.  Next, pour over the applesauce or cut the plums or pluots to cover the entire surface of the dough.  My favorite fruit to use is plums but most of the time I use applesauce because it is more readily available.  One time my friend gave me green pluots from her tree and that cake tasted so great because the pluots (like plums) were sour and a great contrast to the sweet streusel.  You don't want the fruit topping to be that thick otherwise the yeast dough stay soft and gooey even after baking.

Cherries are also a great filling.  We used to go pick Bing cherries in Brentwood, CA every summer and take the pits out and freeze them so my mom could make Streuselkuchen with cherries all year round.  Crumble the streusel on top of the fruit.

Bake at 350 or 325 for 25 to 30 minutes.  When I was little I used to take off the baked streusel and eat it without eating the pizza dough part.  Now I like eating the fruit part and the yeast bread part. I think I liked only the streusel topping because my mom baked the Streuselkuchen so the crust was darker brown and harder than I liked it.

I have tried pumpkin pie filling but I didn't like it as much as the plums, pluots, cherries or applesauce.  My mom liked a ground poppy seed filling called Mohn best.  That is an Eastern European specialty.   One of my high school friends called poppy seed Streuselkuchen "dirt cake" because the ground poppy seeds look like dirt.  My husband likes when I add cinnamon to the apple sauce or to the streusel.  I have done that and I have also added nutmeg and cloves and sometimes cardamon instead of the cloves.