Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

Photo by Heidi

These little coffee cakes taste delicious with or without the optional cinnamon chips. Enjoy!!!

Preheat oven to 375〫. Grease 12 muffin tins, or line with paper muffin liners (I prefer the paper).

Streusel Topping:

2 tablespoons flour 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 2 tablespoons brown sugar 1 tablespoon butter In a small bowl, combine flour, cinnamon and brown sugar and mix until well-combined. Cut in butter and mix until mixture resembles course crumbs. Set aside.

Muffins:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Optional - 1/4 cup cinnamon chips (cinnamon-flavored baking chips that look like chocolate chips)

1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk

Sift together dry ingredients in a medium bowl until well combined. Make a well in the center, then set aside. In another medium bowl, combine oil and brown sugar and beat well. Add egg and mix well, then gradually beat in milk. Pour oil mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just moistened. Fill prepared muffin tins about 2/3 full (I use a large scoop). Sprinkle streusel topping over batter, then bake at 375〫 for 12-16 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted near the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in muffin pan for 10 minutes, then remove muffins from pan and cool completely. Can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, for 2-3 days. Makes 12 muffins.

Chocolate Muffins

I did a thorough search for chocolate muffins, as I did for poppy seed, and kept going back to the almond poppy seed muffin recipe that I liked so much.  I finally decided just to adapt that recipe.  It worked so well, I plan to make blueberry muffins next week!  I'll let you know how that goes.

This makes a dense muffin that is sweet, but not too sweet, because there so much cocoa in the recipe.  You can probably reduce the cocoa and increase the sugar to your liking.  I also considered adding 1/4 cup water to the recipe, as I had seen in others, but left it out because a heavier muffin was what I was looking for.  For us, these muffins were delicious just the way they were, but I may tweak them for fun later.

One difference between this recipe and the poppy seed recipe is that the chocolate muffins contain no baking powder--only baking soda.  I noticed in all the other chocolate muffin recipes that this was the case, and I thought they would taste better this way.

I had enough batter for a dozen muffins, plus one more.  I put a muffin liner in a very small Pyrex bowl and placed it on a pie tin on the bottom rack of the oven.  It took several minutes longer to bake, but I was glad I didn't waste any of that delicious muffin batter.

½ cup brown sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup sour cream

¼ cup milk

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cocoa

½ cup mini chocolate chips

Heat oven to 325°F. Line 12 medium muffin cups with paper baking cups.

In large bowl, stir together 1/2 cup brown sugar, the oil, egg and vanilla. Beat in sour cream and milk with spoon until blended.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa and chocolate chips and stir until well blended. Make a well in the flour mixture.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until moistened (batter will be lumpy).

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (I used a large scoop). Bake 16 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (tops will look cracked). Remove from pan to wire rack. Makes one baker’s dozen.

Poppy Seed Muffins

photo by Heidi

These are almond-flavored--our favorite!  I looked all around the web for good recipes and liked this one the best, because it is simple and makes only a dozen muffins.  In fact, I think this is a great basic muffin recipe with lots of possible variations. I adapted it to make my chocolate muffins.


As you can see, these muffins don't brown on top. If you let them get brown, they will probably be too dry.  I cool mine completely on a wire rack, then cover them loosely with plastic wrap, so they will stay moist.  They are probably best the day after they are baked, like many quick breads.

1/2

cup sugar

1/3

cup vegetable oil

1

egg

1

teaspoon almond extract

1/2

cup sour cream

1/4

cup milk

1 1/3

cups all-purpose flour

1/2

teaspoon baking powder

1/2

teaspoon salt

1/4

teaspoon baking soda

1        tablespoon poppy seeds

3

teaspoons sugar (optional)

2

tablespoons sliced almonds (optional)

• Heat oven to 375°F. Line 12 medium muffin cups with paper baking cups.
• In large bowl, stir together 1/2 cup sugar, the oil, egg and almond extract. Beat in sour cream and milk with spoon until blended. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and poppy seeds and stir until well blended. Make a well in the flour mixture.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until moistened (batter will be lumpy).  Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (I used a large scoop). If desired, sprinkle batter with 3 teaspoons sugar and the almonds.
• Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan to wire rack.  Makes one dozen.