I can’t get enough of Cooks Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen. I love their recipes and all of their tips. I always feel confident when I set out to make one of their recipes that it won’t disappoint. So, tonight when I decided I needed to use up some sour cream in my fridge, I turned to Cooks Illustrated for this coffee cake muffin recipe. I loved that I got to use the food processor to pull this recipe together. I’m still enjoying that toy and don’t use it nearly enough!
These came together without a problem and smelled so wonderful while they were baking. I could barely wait to try one. I can safely say that this is the best muffin I’ve ever had!! The texture is wonderful and the flavor is out of this world. They are a little messy with the streusel topping, but so worth it!
By Tracey
Coffeecake Muffins
from Cooks Illustrated
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
Directions:
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12-cup muffin tin and set aside. (I used liners instead of greasing the tins.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
