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. 

Oatmeal Spice Muffins

Let's take a breakfast staple and throw it into a muffin. I've seen french toast muffins and pancake syrup muffins, probably bacon muffins, so why not oatmeal muffins? A nice compact way to get your oats for the day. You can easily season these with your favorite oatmeal toppings like blueberries or extra cinnamon or add some jam or nutella.

 

The only preplanning needed here is allowing the oats to soak in the buttermilk for about 30 minutes. While they soak, you can gather your ingredients and preheat the oven (400F, line the muffin pan too!). In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

 

Once the oats have soaked up the buttermilk, add the eggs and brown sugar to the bowl and mix until combined. The batter so far will be very thick. Mix in the melted butter and vanilla, followed by the flour mixture. If you're adding any dried fruit or chocolate chips, now would be the time to fold 'em in.

 

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan, filling half way. Bake until golden on top and cooked through.

 

The verdict was these were more like scone muffins than muffin muffins but I'll take it! We are in England, after all.

Recipe

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  Preheat the oven to 400F and line a muffin tin with paper liners (or grease like I did because I was fresh out of liners).
2. In a large bowl, combine the oats and buttermilk. Allow to sit for 30-60 minutes until the oats have soaked up the milk.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. 
4. Once the oats have soaked, add the eggs and brown sugar, mixing to combine. Next, stir in the melted butter and vanilla. 
5. Add the flour mixture to the oats mixture and stir until no flour is visible. The batter will be very thick from the oats.
6. Add any remaining fixins you'd like in the muffins before spooning the batter into the pan, filling a little over half-way.
7. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown on top and cooked through. 
8. Enjoy with some jam or nutella, like a scone, or plain. 

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

Clearly I have a lemon problem. I love lemons. I love yellow. And I love muffins. And if all of those things are baked together into one format, plus poppyseeds, sign me up for lots of 'em. I made orange poppyseed muffins as the inaugural muffin of muffin Monday in the UK but my fav is lemon poppyseed. I also have a large bag of poppyseeds that need to be used up.

 

The thing about muffin recipes, and most easy bake items, is they follow the same order of operations. Dry ingredients in large bowl, wet ingredients in small bowl, mix together, fold in bonus items, spoon out batter, bake and eat. Easy peasy.

 

So in this case, our bonus items are lemon zest and poppyseeds. Lemon zest (zest in general) is very strong and a little goes a long way. The one down side to zest is the actual zesting. Many a knuckle skin has been lost to an overzealous zesting and there's a whole graveyard for sponges that died trying to clean the graters. But I've found that a bottle brush (like for baby bottles) is perfect for cleaning a zester! Pro tip, you're welcome.

At any rate, the zest is added to the sugar and poppyseeds are folded in last. An all around team effort.

 

Recipe

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2/3 cup refined sugar (or light brown sugar)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons poppyseeds
• 1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Prepare the muffin pan and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the melted butter, milk, eggs and vanilla with the sugar and lemon zest.
4. Carefully add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients and fold together until incorporated. 
5. Add the poppyseeds and fold together until evenly mixed. 
6. Fill the muffin cups half-way and bake until golden brown.

Cherry Chocolate Muffins

Test, test. Is this thing on? Ground control to Major Tom? I'm not sure if this thing still works, it's been so long since a new recipe has gone up. End hibernation now!

Way back in January, I wanted to make some orange cranberry muffins because I thought they were nice and wintery with just a hint of Christmas in the post-holiday lull. However, I couldn't find cranberries anymore. Despite still having the aisles marked with Christmas Entertaining, the store employee told me Christmas was over and there wouldn't be any cranberries. But they did have frozen cherries which seemed even more out of season than cranberries but okay, I rolled with it.

It took me far too long to realize that Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream was actually an ode to Jerry Garcia but they were spot-on with their cherry and chocolate combination. I've given it a go in ice cream form as well but really this is another muffin that's a cupcake in disguise.

In addition to the variation in produce availability, chocolate chips in England are different. Every time my friend has a visitor from America, she asks them to bring Nestle chocolate chips. Which on occasion end up in my pantry so I can put them into things like muffins. This recipe also uses yogurt which I've found to make especially spongy cakes and muffins.

 

In a medium bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients. In a small bowl (non-metallic), melt the butter. In the melted butter, add the yogurt, eggs and vanilla (carefully). Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. Fold in the cherries and chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into a prepared muffin pan, filling half-way.

 

Bake until golden brown and cooked through (15-20 minutes). Allow to cool before enjoying with coffee or ice cream...

Recipe

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup cherries (pitted and halved, if frozen then allow to thaw first)

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Prepare a muffin tin by greasing lightly or lining with muffin liners.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter. Allow to cool slightly before mixing in the eggs,vanilla extract and yogurt.
4. Mix the butter mixture into the flour mixture until you can no longer see the dry ingredients.
5. Fold in the cherries and chocolate chips.
6. Fill muffin tin half-way with batter and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden on top and cooked through.

Chocolate Banana Muffins

A couple Mondays ago, I asked what your favorite muffin was so I could get some inspiration for future Muffin Mondays. And you sent some great ideas! Mostly fall-oriented which makes me happy. More pumpkin and apple muffins are in the future. Also some cranberry and more unique flavors (I definitely need to organize my Pinterest boards...).

In the meantime, chocolate for breakfast! These double chocolate muffins are really close to cupcakes. Normally bananas replace an ingredient like butter or oil but this was an addition that made them more breakfasty, right?

A little cocoa powder goes a long way, transforming the standard batter into some dark chocolatey goodness. But one type of chocolate isn't enough, gotta add some chocolate chips too! Folded in with extra love and care.

Baked for 30 minutes until firm, a glass of milk is in order for this sweet muffin!

Recipe

• 1 cup bananas, mashed (1-2 bananas)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup and 1 Tablespoon almond milk (unsweetened)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 2/3 cups of flour
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Line a muffin tin and set aside
2. In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Add the vanilla and egg. Whisk together until smooth.
3. Stir in the oil and milk. Next stir in the sugars. 
4. Slowly fold in the cocoa powder until incorporated. Then add the baking soda and salt. Lastly, fold in the flour.
5. Before spooning the batter into the pan, fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Fill each muffin liner 1/2-3/4 full.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes until firm. 
8. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Carrot Cake Muffins

There was a cafe near my apartment when I lived in Boston that was conveniently located between my apartment and the gym. One of the first times I went to a gym class on a Saturday morning, I stopped into this cafe on my walk home, feeling very accomplished for the day. Being only 9am, I stopped in for a cappucino (a luxury then which has now become a routine) and a muffin. They had a muffin called a Morning Glory muffin which contained carrots and zucchini. I justified the muffin with the whole gym at 8am and containing vegetables thing.

Carrot Cake muffins are similar in that they contain vegetables and you're basically eating a cupcake but calling it a muffin. This version, however, was gluten free and has no refined sugar so it's even better! Granted, when I brought these to the office, I didn't mention the gluten free or sugar free part for fear no one would eat them. Embrace the change, people.

The first time I made carrot cake anything, I sat there using a grater to get shredded carrots. Then I got a food processor and it changed everything. Definitely use a machine if you have one! It saves so much time. Let's also add applesauce to the list of things not readily available in London. I ended up with one choice of applesauce that had cubes of apple. I could probably have pureed it in a blender or food processor but the chunks of apple were actually a nice touch. Once I go apple picking, I will just make my own for use in recipes.

Flour and oats are whisked together in a small bowl and set aside. In a larger bowl, whisk together your eggs, applesauce, baking magics (powder and soda), cinnamon, vanilla, salt and maple syrup. This is where we get our sweetness! Stir together the wet and dry ingredients until you can't see any flour. Next come the goodies! Raisins, carrots and walnuts are folded in. Be generous, be kind. Don't over fold, just get a nice distribution so you have a little bit of everything in each bite.

The batter is nice and thick, no pouring here. Spoon a large spoonful of batter into each muffin wrapper (about half-way). Bake for 15-20 minutes until firm and golden brown.

Allow to cool slightly before unwrapping, otherwise the paper will stick to the muffin and it gets a little messy. I served these the next day after storing in a tupperware container.

Recipe 
(makes 18-20 muffins)

• 1 cup quick oats
• 1 cup gluten-free flour (oat flour would also work)
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/3 cup maple syrup (or honey)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups grated carrots
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners and set aside. Alternatively, grease the muffin pan instead of using liners.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the oats and flour. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, applesauce, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk until blended.
4. Stir the oats and flour into the bowl with the wet ingredients. Mix until just incorporated and you see no more dry ingredients.
5. After using a food processor to chop up the carrots and chopping the walnuts into small pieces, fold into the batter. Don't forget the raisins!
6. Once the carrots, walnuts and raisins are mixed in, spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Fill each cup about 1/2-3/4 of the way.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and firm.