Monday, October 13, 2008

Coffee Cake Muffins

As much as I love weekends, it's a really good thing for my waistline that I don't have time to bake like this every morning. There's something about waking up early and having time to peruse the recipes I've set aside, check the shelves to see what's around and set about making something delicious for breakfast. I just love it. And given the time, I would probably do it every morning.

I found these little numbers through America's Test Kitchen. I've never made one of their recipes before, but after trying these, I plan to make many more. They were absolutely delicious. I changed up the recipe slightly by using light sour cream and subbing out walnuts for pecans (since that's what I had on hand). Use whichever nuts you prefer.

Coffee Cake Muffins
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen
Makes 12 Muffins

Topping
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 T cinnamon
4 T butter, cubed
1/2 cup walnut pieces

Muffins
2 eggs
1 cup light sour cream
1 T vanilla bean paste
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
5 T butter

Preheat oven to 375
For the topping:
Place the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, butter and 1/4 cup of the sugar in a food processor and pulse until crumbs form. Scoop out 3/4 cup of mixture and set aside (this will be your cinnamon filling). Add remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and the walnut pieces and pulse until nuts are coarsely chopped. Set aside for your topping.

For the muffins:
Mix the eggs, vanilla and sour cream together. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until crumbs form. Use a spatula to gently fold the dry and wet ingredients together. Do not over mix. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray and line with muffin liners. Place 1 T of batter in each muffin cup and press to cover the bottom. Next add 1 T of cinnamon filling, pressing into the batter, and then cover with more batter until all the batter is used up. Sprinkle 2 T of topping over each of the muffins and press gently into the batter. Bake for 22 - 24 minutes and let cool for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

10 comments:

Hopie said...

I totally know what you mean! I love having time on the weekends to bake something yummy for breakfast. Those muffins look delicious.

Meg said...

Oh boy that crumb topping is calling my name!! YUM!

Anonymous said...

OK - I may nix the suggestions that everyone else made and try these first. OMG - yum!

La Bella Cooks said...

These seem like a perfect Sunday morning treat to enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee. Good choice with the pecans, they are my favorite!

Erica said...

Yum, your blog always makes me want to bake :). I agree, my waistline would be much larger if it was always the weekend haha

Maria said...

Great recipe for fall! And the cookies below look great. Cookies are my favorite thing to bake...I always bake too many and eat too many though!

Alexa said...

These muffins look great. The topping sounds sinful. ATK has great recipes... I love their recipe for chicken biryani.

Anonymous said...

i love america's test kitchen and anything cook's illustrated-related. these look dee-lish. i had to post comment so you know i'm on your blog all the time. xox

Robin said...

These look so delicious. I am so glad I found your blog, we seem to have the same style in cooking and baking.

Do you think I could use Pure vanilla instead of the paste?
Thanks,
Robin

Samantha Kate said...

Wow these look great! The topping just perfects the muffin :)