Bakery Style Crumb Cake Muffins
I haven’t made muffins in years. Truly, I looked back into my recipe archives and realized that I have NEVER posted a muffin recipe! I thought, “maybe I just don’t love muffins.” Which is devastatingly untrue. If there’s one thing I love forever and ever, it’s the blueberry muffin from Dozen Bakery.
So why don’t I ever make them at home?? Because they look like sad cupcakes, that’s why. They sit low and barely pop over the edge of the liner, the top is always a little, dare I say it…moist, and they never taste over the top enough. Muffins are for bakeries, that’s the way I chose to live.
Until one fateful morning at 6am when I trudged downstairs to bake my mom a coffee cake for her birthday. I looked around desperately only to find that there were no cake or brownie pans available. I had already filled them with brownies, strawberry cake, and homemade ice cream. It was a busy week!
I halfheartedly glanced over at the muffin tins. They glared back. “Uggghhh” I whispered. I looked away anxiously and made coffee. After a sad attempt to reshape a disposable tin cake pan, I hastily grabbed the muffin tins.
Like a kid outside of a candy store, I turned on the oven light and watched with my nose pressed to the glass as these muffins rose up, piled over, and baked to perfection. Unbelievable. Ever so skeptically, I pulled the muffins out of the oven and waited for them to cool. As I wiggled one out of its cozy little seat and placed it onto a plate, I laughed.
They were GORGEOUS! So I cut into one and took a bite. They were RIDICULOUS.
These muffins turned out with the most light and fluffy crumb and filled with a cinnamon sugar filling so flavorful and reminiscent of a Cinnamon Brown Sugar Pop-Tart. And after all of that, these muffins have the audacity to be heavily topped with the most decadent, over the edge crumb topping that perfectly spills over like the beautiful, giant ones you get from a New York bakery.
My 5-year feud with the muffin tins has come to a life-altering end, and no one is happier about this than me. Trust me, you’re going to need these for your Sunday morning paper. They’re the answer to all of your weekend prayers. And who knows, if you close your eyes as you sip your coffee and nosh on these muffins, you might even think you’ve traveled to New York. Which is just the pipe dream we all need right now.
Bakery Style Crumb Cake Muffins
Ingredients | Yields 18 muffins
Crumb Topping
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon instant coffee grounds*
1/2 cup (113 grams) butter, browned, slightly cooled
Cinnamon Sugar Filling
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee grounds*
Sour Cream Muffins
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla paste)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.
Crumb Topping
Brown butter in a heavy bottom pan over medium, medium-high heat. While that’s heating, whisk all remaining crumb topping ingredients into a mixing bowl. Once browned butter is slightly cooled, 1-2 minutes, pour over dry ingredients and mix until combined using a spatula or large spoon. Set aside.
Cinnamon Sugar Filling
Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl using a fork or spatula. Set aside.
Sour Cream Muffins
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together sour cream and heavy cream until just combined. Do not over mix! Set aside.
Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar, 3-4 minutes on medium-high. Add in vanilla and eggs and beat on medium-high until light and airy, about 3-5 minutes. Alternate mixing in dry ingredients and sour cream mixture in 1/3 parts each until batter is homogeneous.
Spray muffin tins with baking spray (the kind with flour added is best!) or use muffin liners. Add a tablespoon of muffin batter to each tin and spread evenly across the bottom. Evenly distribute cinnamon sugar filling and use the back of a spoon to lightly spread over the batter. Add remaining batter to layer the muffin tin across each of the 18 muffins.
Top very generously with crumb topping until no batter can be seen. (At this point, I added rainbow sprinkles because it was my mom’s birthday, but honestly, rainbow sprinkles are a welcome addition any time.)
Bake for 18-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the the middle of a muffin comes out with just a few crumbs.
Let cool and enjoy!