Crumb Cake Muffins
These are great stay-home-in-your-pjs-on-a-Sunday-morning crumb cake muffins. Caleb broke his muffin up in bowl of Del Marie yogurt and ate it with a spoon. I just had mine with coffee. Mmmm. These are a special treat.
Recipe slightly modified from Cook’s Illustrated, January 1, 2008, by way of the Seasonal Eating blog.
Don’t be tempted to substitute all-purpose flour for the cake flour, as doing so will make a dry, tough muffin. When topping the muffins, take care to not push the crumbs into the batter. Cooled leftovers can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. table salt
8 T. unsalted butter, melted and still warm
1 3/4 cups cake flour
Muffins
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. table salt
6 T. unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces, softened but still cool
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup Del Marie yogurt
Instructions
- For the topping: Whisk sugars, cinnamon, salt, and butter in medium bowl to combine. Add flour and stir with rubber spatula or wooden spoon until mixture resembles thick, cohesive dough; set aside to cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.
- For the muffins: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard-sized muffin pan (cups have 1/2 cup capacity) with baking-cup liners. If not using liners, simply grease muffin tin with butter or oil, then very lightly dust with flour.
- Using a hand mixer or in the bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt on low speed to combine. With mixer running at low speed, add butter one piece at a time; continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no visible butter chunks remaining, 1 to 2 minutes. Add egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt; beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute, scraping once if necessary.
- Using 1/4-cup measure or ice cream scoop, divide batter evenly among muffin cups; using small rubber spatula, spread batter into even layer. Break apart crumb topping into large pea-sized pieces and spread in even layer over batter (about 1/4 cup of crumbs per muffin), beginning with edges and then working toward center. Bake until crumbs are golden and wooden skewer inserted into center of muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool muffins in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack at least 20 minutes.
- daphne