Right off the bat I'd just like to say that these aren't the prettiest muffins you're ever gonna find, but they taste so good that I decided to just not care. Could they be a little more domed like a perfect bakery-style muffin? Yeah. Could the streusel crumbs on top be a little bit bigger? Probably. Does any of this affect the experience of eating these muffins? Absolutely not. So here they are, a little less than photogenic but probably in the ranks with some of the best-tasting muffins I've ever had.
Here's the deal: although these are technically muffins due to their shape, they really do taste more like coffee cake, which is something I can't entirely explain other than that the soft & fluffy texture plus the ever so slight hint of sour cream in the crumb screams coffeecake more than muffin to me in the best way possible. In fact, these almost remind me of a suuuper fluffy cinnamon-swirl bread, except for the fact that there's no yeast in them and they don't require any slicing before eating (or copious amounts of time to make). All that being said, the real message here is that these muffins are killer. ALSO, the batter tastes like sugar cookies, so there's really no going wrong.
Recipe Card
Cinnamon Streusel Muffins
These super soft and fluffy muffins have a sweet swirl of cinnamon sugar in the middle and big chunks of cinnamon streusel on top. They taste like the best of cinnamon rolls and coffee cake combined!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 52 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
- Category: muffins
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Cinnamon Streusel Topping:
- ⅔ cup (80 grams) all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 5 tablespoons (71 grams) butter, melted
Cinnamon Swirl:
- ¼ cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
Muffins:
- 3 cups (360 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup (113 grams) butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (198 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (241 grams) sour cream or whole milk Greek yogurt, room temperature
- ½ (120 grams) buttermilk, room temperature
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
Cinnamon Streusel Topping:
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add the melted butter and mix in until all of the dry ingredients are evenly moistened and the mixture is clumpy. Place in the refrigerator to chill while prepping the muffins.
Cinnamon Swirl:
- In a small bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and ground cinnamon. Set aside.
Muffin Batter:
- Preheat oven to 400ºF and grease a standard 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using a large bowl and handheld electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.
- Reduce mixer speed to medium. Beat in the eggs one at a time until smoothly incorporated, wiping down the bowl and beater as needed. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla extract.
- Add a third of the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture, mixing in on low speed until mostly incorporated. Continuing on low speed, mix in half of the buttermilk, the second third of the flour mixture, and finally the remaining half of the buttermilk, mixing each addition in until mostly combined. Finish folding the batter together with a spatula, just until everything is evenly combined. The batter will be fairly thick.
Assembling and Baking:
- Fill the prepared muffin cups about halfway with batter, gently pressing the batter down into each cup to ensure the bottoms are completely covered. Divide the cinnamon-swirl mixture evenly over the muffin batter in each cup.
- Top with the remaining batter to cover the cinnamon completely; the muffin cups will be full. Use a toothpick to swirl the batter in each cup, and then gently smooth out the tops of the muffins with your fingertip.
- Sprinkle the streusel mixture over the muffins, breaking up any especially large clumps with your fingers in the process.
- Bake muffins in the preheated oven for 7 minutes. Reduce heat to 350ºF and bake for another 15-18 minutes - until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs. Place pan over a wire cooling rack and allow muffins to cool to room temperature before removing.
Notes
Ingredients Notes:
- Gluten-free all-purpose flour can be used in this recipe to make these muffins gluten-free.
- Salted or unsalted butter can be used for both the streusel and muffin batter.
- You can make homemade buttermilk for this recipe if you don't have any on hand.
Storage and Shelf Life:
- Once cool, store muffins in a zip-top bag or airtight container. Muffins will keep for up to 3 days at cool room temperature or up to 5 days in the refrigerator. They're best served at room temperature.
Additional Tips:
- I don't recommend using muffin liners for this recipe because of the quantity of batter. If you do, you will likely need to make more than 12 muffins as the liners will take up some space in each muffin cup.
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Rachelle
The muffins look delicious!
Is it really supposed to be 1 Tbsp. Baking powder? Or was that supposed to be 1 tsp.? I'm a little afraid to try it with that much baking powder without double checking! Thanks!!
alexandra
Yep, it's a full tablespoon! One of the tricks to big muffins is to fill your muffin tins with more batter and use enough baking powder to get a good rise. I use this amount in many of my muffin recipes and it works!
Cherri Papastergion
I enjoy very much your recipes. Thank you so much for doing this. I don't care for store bought desserts, breads, muffins. They just don't taste as good as fresh homemade food.
Thank you for your help,
Cherri Papastergion
alexandra
Aw thank you! I agree, homemade is always better!
Arzoo
These muffins are looking so yummy.
alexandra
Thank you! :)