Coffee Cake Muffins

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...While this is not my only recipe for sour cream coffee cake, I have a special fondness for it. It is, of course delicious, but it also gives you the option of making muffins rather than one large cake. The muffins are wonderful for morning meetings or a family brunch and help eliminate guess work when it comes to portion control and judging the quantities needed to feed hungry hordes. The cake/muffins are really easy to do, especially if you are comfortable making pie crust. No equipment, save your hands and a spoon, is needed to make this lovely breakfast treat. While the muffins can be made a day before they are needed, they are really best if made just before they are to be eaten. To make their assembly easier, all ingredients can be measured the night before serving, leaving you only to combine them and then bake off the muffins. You will find these to be very popular with your family and friends. What's not to like? They are kissed with the barest hint of orange flavor and the combination of easy and delicious is hard to beat. Here's the recipe.

Coffee Cake Muffins...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite adapted from Gourmet Magazine
Ingredients:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup packed light brown sugar, divided use
2 sticks (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1-1/2 cups (6 oz) pecans, toasted and chopped
1 cup sour cream
1 whole large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons finely grated fresh orange zest

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 18 1/2 cup muffin cups. Set aside.
2) Stir together granulated sugar, flour, salt, and 3/4 cup brown sugar in a large bowl, then blend in 1-1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal with some pea-size butter lumps. Transfer 3/4 cup to a bowl and blend in cinnamon, remaining 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) butter, and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar with your fingertips or pastry blender until crumbly. Stir in pecans, then chill streusel topping 15 minutes.
3) Whisk together sour cream, whole egg, yolk, vanilla, baking soda, and zest, then stir into remaining flour mixture until just combined (batter will be stiff).
4) Divide batter among 18 well-buttered muffin cups (they'll be about two-thirds full; butter tops of tins as well). Sprinkle each with streusel topping, pressing it lightly into batter. Bake coffeecakes in middle of oven until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 30 minutes. Loosen cakes with a sharp small knife, then carefully remove cakes from pans.

Cooks'notes: The coffeecake batter can also be baked in a buttered 9-1/2-inch springform pan  for 1 to 1 1/4 hours.








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Your might also enjoy these recipes:
Old School Blueberry Cardamom Coffee Cake - Beloved Green
Sour Cream Toffee Coffee Cake - Christine's Cuisine
Orange Raisin Coffee Cake - Diethood
Blueberry Lemon Coffee Cake - Kitchen Runway
Honey Cardamom Coffee Cake - Eating the Rainbow
Sour Cherry Coffee Cake - The Amateur Gourmet
New York-Style Crumb Cake - Gourmeted
Cocoa and Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake - The Sweetest Kitchen
Sour Cream and Cherry Coffee Cake - Baking and Boys
Blueberry Almond Coffee Cake - Burn Me Not
Cranberry Kuchen - Amanda's Cookin'
Sour Cream Coffee Cake - The Apron Archives

This post is being linked to:
Smiling Sally - Blue Monday