Just now I was standing next to the mixer here at the bakery, making streusel (or as it is pronounced and spelled here in Texas, "strizel"). As the paddle kicked up the sugar and flour, it reminded me of this home science experiment I did as a kid.
The experiment goes like this: you drill a hole at the bottom of an old coffee can, attach a length of hose and fill the can one-eighth of the way with flour. Then you put a lit candle on top of the flour, put on the lid, and blow through the hose. The flour kicks up into a cloud, the candle lights off the particles of flour, and each particle lights off the particles next to it and the result is the lid of the can explodes off.
It’s called a dust explosion and it’s the same principle that blows up grain elevators and causes the flash points of burning houses.
As the paddle kicked up the strizel, I thought to myself that there was enough dust in the air from the fifteen pounds of ingredients that it might actually be dense enough to cause an explosion.
I actually had my lighter in my hand before the part of my brain that does cost-benefit calculations kicked in (one: nothing happens, two: I blow up).
Maybe I’m not getting enough sleep.