Morning Maple Muffins

I love alliteration, don’t you?  I also love these muffins.  They are not healthy for you.  Sorry.  I thought about adding a little applesauce and taking away some butter but with 1/2 cup of pure maple syrup at stake I want these muffins to be moist and miserably bad for you.  But it’s worth it, I promise you. 

These muffins were too good, unfortunately I left eight of them out on the counter and went to fold clothes and came back to find a trail of nuts leading underneath the kitchen table and a Springer Spaniel with guilty written across his face.  He ate eight of them, eight. 

That’s just selfish.

He could have at least left me one…more.

Morning Maple Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup butter melted

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup sour cream

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

topping

3 tbsp. ground cinnamon

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp white sugar

2 tbsp chopped nuts

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400.  Line muffin pans or spray with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.  In another bowl combine buttermilk, butter, syrup, sour cream, egg and vanilla.  Stir into the dry ingredients until just combined.
3. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full (using a cookie scoop perhaps). Mix topping ingredients together, cutting butter until a crumble forms.  Sprinkle over batter.  Bake at 400 for 18-20 min.  Cool for several minutes in pan and then move to wire racks to cool completely.  Eat before dog does.

The crumble on these incredibly moist muffins are worth all of the fat and calories in this muffin.  It’s Saturday, enjoy your weekend with a batch of these sinful muffins, you deserve it.

To start off muffin week I felt as though I had to go with blueberry, the archetypal muffin, the tried and true, model muffin. Who doesn’t like a blueberry muffin? I mean, really, is there anyone alive and well whom doesn’t enjoy this moist and delicious palm sized bread?

If there is, I surely don’t want to know them.

I am only kidding. I would never judge a person for what they wouldn’t eat.

But I think it is safe to say, overall, that most people like a good blueberry muffin, right?

And this, this is more than a good blueberry muffin. It’s a great one. So there’ll be no problems then.

I went searching for a good blueberry muffin recipe last summer after I had myself an Elaine from Seinfeld moment and bought a muffin top pan. Of course the muffin top pan search was started the spring before that, after a winter long pregnancy induced obsession with Panera Bread Pumpkin Muffin Tops.

This muffin is very forgiving and flexible. I have made it as a mini muffin, as a large jumbo muffin, as regular muffins and thanks to my muffin top pan, as muffin tops. I have made it with applesauce, with canola oil, with vegetable oil. I have tried eggs and eggbeaters. I have added spices sometimes and taken away spices other times. And yet this muffin always turns out great.

Blueberry Muffins

Prep time: 15 min

Cook time: 20 to 25 min.

Serves: 8

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup applesauce (or Canola oil)

1 egg

1/3 cup buttermilk (or regular milk if out)

1 cup fresh (or frozen) blueberries

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, cubed

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1.) Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

2.) Combine flours, sugar, salt and baking powder. Place applesauce (or vegetable oil) into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup.

Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

3.) To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

4.) Bake for 18-20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Note

Sift blueberries in flour so they don’t sink.