Coffee Cake Muffins

This is a classic coffee cake recipe in muffin form with a crumbly streusel topping.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 25

Total Time 40

Servings standard size muffins

Calories 296kcal

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin-tin with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, combine chopped pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Mix well and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Cut 8 tablespoons of butter into ½ inch pieces and sprinkle evenly over flour mixture. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture until butter is oat-sized.
Remove 1 cup of the flour-butter mixture and stir into reserved brown sugar mixture until combined to make streusel. Scoop out 3/4 cup of streusel for muffin batter and set aside.
Cut the remaining tablespoon of butter into the remaining streusel until streusel resembles a crumble, then set aside for topping muffins. Add baking powder and baking soda to remaining flour mixture and stir to combine.
In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together sour cream, egg, and vanilla. Add liquids to flour mixture and stir until just combined. Add the 3/4 cup reserved streusel to flour mixture and stir until streusel is just distributed throughout batter. The batter will be thick.
Divide batter among 12 muffin cups and sprinkle generously with streusel topping, pressing lightly with the back of a spoon, so that streusel sinks slightly into batter.
Bake 22 to 24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of muffin comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Substitutions:

Pecans: You can use another type of nut for the crumble topping, including almonds or walnuts. You can also omit the nuts, if desired.

Optional Glaze:

Drizzle the muffins with a simple glaze made by whisking together 1 cup confectioners' sugar, 3 tablespoons milk and 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract.

Freezing:

You can freeze these muffins. Wrap them individually in aluminum foil or plastic wrap. Place in a freezer bag, seal and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw them at room temperature or unwrap and heat in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Do not freeze with the optional glaze.

Other flavors:

You can fold in one of the following ingredients before transferring to the muffin tin, if desired.

Strawberry: Fold in 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh strawberries.
Blueberry: Fold in 1 cup blueberries.
Apple: Fold in 1 cup coarsely chopped tart apple such as Baldwin, Braeburn, Fuji, Gala or Granny Smith.
Carrot Cake: Fold in 1 cup loosely packed grated carrot.