I have teased my facebook followers before with glimpses of crumb topped muffins and I promised a recipe would follow so here it is.

Its from Cook’s Illustrated – Baking Illustrated.

If you are not familiar with Christopher Kimball’s Cook’s Illustrated Magazine check it out here. You can sign up for a free 14-day trial (it does require a credit card) and you can cancel at any time. The premise of Cook’s Illustrated (in a nut shell) is that they have a group of cooks on a HUGE test kitchen and they make, bake, prepare everything 10 different ways to figure out the absolute best recipe. That means no “oops, that actually really sucked” dishes. Ask my husband NOTHING puts me in a bad mood like a total flop in the kitchen. Ok so we know this recipe is FABULOUS. Why you ask? because they have managed to figure out how to swirl in a cinnamon streak with a moist cake muffin and a crunchy streusel topping that almost has a sweet/salty addictive quality to it. *sigh*

Coffeecake Muffins
makes 12

INGREDIENTS

1/2	cup pecans (2 ounces)
1/4	cup packed dark brown sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
1	teaspoon ground cinnamon
2	cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces)
1	cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
1	teaspoon salt
8	tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into 1/2-inch pieces and softened
1 1/2	teaspoons baking powder
1/2	teaspoon baking soda
3/4	cup sour cream
1	large egg
1	teaspoon vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12-cup muffin tin and set aside.

2. Process nuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon in food processor until nuts are size of sesame seeds, about ten 1-second pulses. Transfer mixture to medium bowl.

3. Return bowl and metal blade to food processor, add flour, granulated sugar, and salt and process until combined, about five 1-second pulses. Sprinkle butter evenly over flour mixture and process until butter is oat-sized, about eight 1-second pulses. Remove 1 cup of flour-butter mixture and stir with fork into reserved brown sugar mixture until combined to make streusel. Set aside 3/4 cup of streusel for muffin batter and remaining portion for topping muffins.

4. Add baking powder and baking soda to remaining flour mixture in food processor bowl and process until combined, about five 1-second pulses. Whisk together sour cream, egg, and vanilla; add to flour mixture. Process until batter is just moistened, about five 1-second pulses. Add 3/4 cup reserved streusel to flour mixture and process until streusel is just distributed throughout batter, about five 1-second pulses.

5. Divide batter among 12 muffin cups and sprinkle with streusel, pressing lightly so that streusel sinks slightly into batter. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out with several crumbs clinging to it, about 18 minutes, rotating pan from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffin tin on wire rack for 2 minutes. Using tip of paring knife, loosen muffins and gently transfer from tin to wire rack; cool for 5 minutes and serve warm.

In the interest of time I am uploading all the “steps” into a gallery format – those that want to see a certain step can click on the thumbnail for a larger view. They are in sequential order.

Shopping List

Dairy

large egg, 1

sour cream,  3/4 cup

unsalted butter, 8 tablespoons

Pantry/Dry Goods

baking powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons

baking soda,  1/2 teaspoon

granulated sugar, 1 cup

ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon

packed dark brown sugar,  1/4 cup

pecans,  1/2 cup

salt, 1 teaspoon

unbleached all-purpose flour, 2 cups

vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon