Super-streusel muffins

The combination of a snow day and the presence of extra sour cream in the refrigerator can be a dangerous thing.  It can lead to the making of decadent treats. For me, it led to the making of these "super-streusel" muffins a couple of weeks ago.

I think our winter started off pretty calmly...after last year's relentlessly long winter and countless snow storms, I initially thought that maybe we would be lucky this year.  Looking at it now, it seems we just had a late start!  We've had our share of snow, a couple of snow days/school closings, and in general, it has been extremely cold and icy out.  All that said, I'm really grateful we haven't had issues with power outages like we did a couple of years ago.  It's hard to complain when you're warm and toasty in your own home.

The cold leads me - and keeps me - in the kitchen, and it seems to be making us hungry all the time!  During a snow day, we seem to be doing the following on repeat: cook-eat-shovel.  I can barely keep up with my fellas' appetites!  But with all the calories we're burning from snow-shoveling, I think we can handle some hearty meals and a few sweet treats.  

And these muffins were one of the sweet treats I baked during the last snow day.  I had leftover sour cream after making the mini chocolate bundt cakes.  Since sour cream always makes me think of coffee cakes, it's no surprise I ended up here with what I'm calling "super-streusel" muffins.  I call them that because these muffins are loaded with streusel/crumb topping - the ratio of muffin to streusel topping is almost 1 to 1.  No one's going to complain about insufficient streusel here!

This recipe I used was intended for large, or jumbo, muffins.  Since I don't have a jumbo muffin tin, I improvised.  I used my regular-size muffin tin and set tall paper baking cups within the openings.  This gave me the height I needed to imbed all that streusel-goodness within.  I bought these paper cups eons ago (they must have been on sale) and I'm happy I finally had a reason to use them.  Alternatively, you could buy and use similar tall parchment cups or make your own!

Instead of following the recipe and doing a layering of streusel in the middle of the muffins and then placing more on top (which would work better if you had the jumbo tin), I kept all the streusel on top of the muffin batter.  To get it all on there, I lightly pressed some of the streusel on top of the batter first and then topped them off with more.

The cake itself is super moist and fluffy, the topping is simply sweet and crunchy. Frankly, these muffins have many of the elements that provide you with an express route to goodness in baked goods: butter, sugar, sour cream...It's full-on muffin indulgence for a snow day!


A question about streusel...

With all this streusel business, I want to reach out to any streusel-experts out there with a question.  Not having much experience, I always thought I preferred making streusel or crumb topping with cold butter - the type where you cut small pieces of cold butter into your brown sugar and flour mixture.  That's how this recipe goes.  But after doing it this time and thinking longer on it, I now feel like the melted butter method might work better.  It seems easier to stir in melted butter to get even clumps.

Is there any particular reason to do it one way or another?  What's your preference, if you have one?  I am just thinking/questioning out loud but any thoughts would be interesting and appreciated!

I made a small batch (half-dozen) of these muffins.  I might need a snow day - and intense snow shoveling - to justify making and eating them again!  I'm not exactly eager for any snow storms or snow days so I'm not sure when we'll be enjoying these super muffins again.  I do know that snow days do come with its set of perks, treats like these being one of them!


Recipe:

Super-Streusel Muffins
Adapted from Martha Stewart

- For 6 muffins - 

*You will need tall paper baking cups for this recipe to hold in the abundant streusel topping.  You can see instructions for making your own parchment baking cups here.

For streusel topping:
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For muffins:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg

Make streusel topping: Stir brown sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl.  Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Set in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Make muffins: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place tall paper baking cups* (such as parchment baking cups) into 6 cups of a regular-size muffin tin.  

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Place butter, sour cream, granulated sugar and vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat together on medium-speed until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg until combined. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.  On low-speed, beat in the flour mixture until just incorporated.

Divide muffin batter into the 6 prepared muffin cups.  Top muffins with half the streusel topping.  Gently press the topping down slightly into the batter.  Then top with remaining streusel (it will look like a lot of streusel topping).  Bake until golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the muffins comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let muffins cool in pan, on a wire rack, for about 5 minutes.  Remove from the muffin tins and let cool completely on wire rack.