Coffee Cake Muffins

Contrary to its name, coffee cake doesn't actually have coffee in it. My guess is it's named this way because you serve it with coffee. My Italian flatmate was very confused when I was explaining coffee cake didn't taste like coffee, she said they call tiramisu coffee cake. We just call tiramisu, tiramisu.

So here we have a cinnamon cake with almonds and thus coffee cake--muffins. This comes from Joy the Baker's new cookbook Overeasy. It's entirely devoted to brunch: baked goods, entrees, beverages, everything to throw a great brunch. It felt wrong to sit inside my flat, on my couch and flip through the pages of this cookbook. It felt like it's meant to be read in the quiet early morning hours out on a porch with a cup of coffee. All I wanted to do was live in a bungalow and throw a fancy brunch with friends. A dream for another day.

 

Crumble is pretty standard across the board: flour, sugar, cinnamon, cold butter. Mix together to make--crumbly.

We're using my favorite browned (nee melted) butter to make these muffins. No planning for softening required. Sour cream is also used instead of milk, giving an extra spongy and delicious texture to these muffins.

 

After browning the butter, it is whisked together with the sour cream, egg and egg yolk. If you have vanilla extract, now's the time to add that. I ran out and was going to skip it (scandalous!) but my flatmate had this combo vanilla-baking powder thing I tried instead.

 

In a separate bowl, mix together your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) before adding to the butter mixture to form a nice, thick batter.

Now, some assembly is required: muffin batter followed by crumble topping followed by almonds. Easy peasy. Bake until golden brown and cooked through.

 

Enjoy on your perfect porch/patio/deck/fire escape with a cup of coffee and you're good to go!


Recipe
Crumble

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold butter, cubed

1. In a medium bowl, mix togethr the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.
2. Cut in the cubed butter with a knife or pastry cutter. You can also use your hands to mix until it's crumbly. 
3. Set aside for later.

Muffins

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) browned butter
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup roasted almonds, chopped for topping

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin and set aside (in total, this made around 15 muffins).
2. In a small sauce pan, brown the butter. Even once the butter is melted, continue to heat as it crackles and the water cooks out. Remove from heat once it's changed in color to a darker yellow, crackles less and smells nutty.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the sour cream (you could substitute for Greek yogurt if you prefer), egg, egg yolk, vanilla and browned butter (slightly cooled).
4. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. 
5. Pour the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Mix until no flour is visible.
6. Assembly time! Spoon the muffin mixture into your prepared pan, filling each cup about half way.
7. Add a spoonful of crumble topping to each muffin cup. Use a knife to mix and swirl the crumble into the muffin.
8. Lastly, top with the toasted almonds.
9. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until set and browned on top. 

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Does coffee cake always have a cinnamon topping? Does that mean the term 'cinnamon coffee cake' is redundant? Then I shall be redundant. There are few things I can distinctly remember the first time I ever ate them, coffee cake being one. It was 2nd grade. I have no idea why we had coffee cake at school but we did. I also thought one could only have it when coffee was around (ie: served with coffee) but I'm glad that was an incorrect assumption.

I made this for my coworkers and clearly I need to keep this recipe handy. Such phrases as "the best baked good you've ever made" were thrown around. Fightin' words. This was the first time I ventured to make coffee cake and it was a lot easier than anticipated. This shall become a staple.

As always, room temperature butter is creamed with the sugar and eggs before adding the dry ingredients. The batter is thicker than cake batter, almost velvety. But don't forget the secret ingredient: yogurt. Originally, this was sour cream but I like using Greek yogurt better. In part because it's healthier but I also think it gives cakes and breads a better texture.

My initial plan was to put this in a bundt pan but ultimately decided on a 9x9. Half the batter goes in before putting a layer of streusal down. This will give the center a nice cinnamon swirl. The rest of the batter is laid on top before being topped with the remaining streusal. The topping is made of melted butter, sugar, cinnamon and some flour. All things delicious.

The cake bakes for about 30-40 minutes or until a skewer in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool before cutting into pieces but definitely try a piece warm. Heaven!

Recipe

Cake

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt

Streusal 

• 3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9x9 pan and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine all the dry ingredients for the streusal. Mix evenly before adding the melted butter.
3. Use a fork or pastry cutter to mix the streusal until it's crumbly. Set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together and set aside.
5. In a large bowl, place the stick of softened butter. Using a hand or stand mixer, cream the butter until smooth.
6. Add the sugar to the butter and continue to mix until fluffy (which is basically combined and smooth).
7. Add the eggs one at a time to the butter and sugar mixture until combined. Also add the vanilla here. 
8. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the yogurt to the butter-sugar-egg mix. 
9. Pour half of the batter into the 9x9 pan. Top that layer with a layer of streusal. If you want to be fancy, you can use a knife to spread the streusal in a swirly pattern throughout the cake batter.
10. Pour the remaining batter on top of the streusal layer and top with all remaining streusal (how many times can we say 'streusal'?).
11. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer placed in the center of the cake comes out clean.
12. The cake will deflate slightly as it cools. Allow to cool a bit before cutting into pieces and serving.