Coffee Cake Muffins

I make very few things from my Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook. I use the cornbread recipe, and occasionally I'll look for something else. I use it for good, basic recipes. Not too many ingredients, simple to find, easy to execute. I use the Weights and Measures in the front cover all the time. Tomorrow is Abbie's turn to bring snack for school. When asked what she wanted to bring she replied, "Broccoli, carrots, and Coffee Cake Muffins". I feel a little guilty when I send Coffee Cake Muffins. Like most muffins, they aren't really anything far from cake, or a cupcake without frosting. Coffee Cake Muffins make up for the fact that they don't have frosting with little crumbly brown sugar topping. It's like giving each of Abbie's classmates a teaspoon of sugar, then sending them into the classroom. But, that's what she wanted. So this afternoon, I pulled out my Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, and turned to the Coffee Cake Muffins page. They are really very good. I make little mini-muffins, so I don't feel too badly about them. Let's put it this way- I never get any leftovers back at the end of the day.
A few notes-
I only make half the crumbly topping. You really don't need the whole recipe. Below is the recipe as it is written.
I never add the nuts. My kids don't like them in baked goods, and the school has a "no nut" policy.
I never have buttermilk at home. Here's what you do- Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of white vinegar to a measuring cup. Fill the measuring cup with whole milk to the 1/2 cup line. You'll have buttermilk for this recipe.
Please don't use margarine. Ever.

Coffee Cake Muffins
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter or margarine
3 Tbsp. walnuts or pecans, chopped
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Grease twelve 2 1/2-inch muffin cups (or 30 mini-muffin cups) or line with paper bake cups; set aside.
For topping, in a small bowl, stir together the 3 tablespoons flour, brown sugar, and the 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon.
Cut in the 2 tablespoons butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs; stir in nuts; set topping aside.
In a medium bowl, stir together the 1 1/2 cups flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, the 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, and salt; cut in the 1/4 cup butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
In another bowl, combine egg and buttermilk; Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture; stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy).
Spoon half of the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each one-third full.
Top with half of the topping, the remaining batter, and the remaining topping.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
Remove from muffin cups.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

I'm really not a big fan of fat-free, hey, it's just like the regular kind, but all the flavor has been removed, food. I'd rather have the full fat, or maybe lowish fat food, but just eat less of it. I know there are those out there that disagree. They want to eat as much of whatever food as they want, so those fat-free options are a good thing. Hopefully, those people also can't taste their food, because so much of it really tastes bad. I read an article in the paper about how chair manufacturers have had to increase the dimensions of chair seats because American's butts are so big. A common stool chair used to be 12 inches wide, now it's 18 inches. I'm getting to my point here. While I don't usually like low or fat free food, it's January. After the baking I did last month, I'm going to need an extra large lazy-boy if I don't find some less indulgent recipes for a while. We went out to breakfast as a family the other day- something we rarely do, but was very nice all the same, and Abbie was asking for muffins. These were giant, covered in sugar almost like a small cake muffin. I knew I could make something almost as delicious, and certainly better for her. I ended up making smaller muffins, so my yield was about 18 muffins. The nutritional info for the original recipe was about 120 calories per muffin, so I imagine my smaller portion muffin is closer to 100. I have them in a bag in the freezer, and wrap 1 in a paper towel, nuke it for 30 seconds and voila! a healthy breakfast. How are they? Delicious, of course! They came out light and fluffy, not heavy little hockey puck muffins at all. They have a slight whole wheat flour flavor at the end, but they are whole wheat, so what are you gonna do? They still taste great. I used the nonfat yogurt, because I can only buy huge quantities of buttermilk at the store, and it's a waste to buy so much just to throw it away. You can make your own buttermilk by adding 1 tbs. vinegar to 1 cup nonfat milk, if you choose. I did have to add just a little very coarse sanding sugar on the top of each one, which gives it a terrific crunch.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins
12 muffins

1 cup wholewheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tbs. + 1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup nonfat buttermilk , or 1 cup non-fat plain yogurt
2 tbs. canola oil
2 tbs. unsweetened applesauce
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Lightly spray a muffin tin with cooking spray. (Or just use the little papers like I did. I love the little plain white papers you can find at Michael's or a baking supply store.)

In a large bowl, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, applesauce and egg. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry mixture, stirring until it is just combined (do not over mix). Toss unthawed frozen blueberries with two tablespoons of flour before adding them to the batter to keep them from turning the batter purple while the muffins bake. Lightly stir in the blueberries.

Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared muffin cups. Bake until the tops are golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool slightly. Then transfer the muffins to cooling rack. Serve warm.