[Muffin Fail, then] Muffin Win: Coffee Cake Muffins w/ Sweet Glaze

Last week, a club that I’m a part of held a bake sale to raise funds for our activities. I agonized over what to bake. I needed something that would be tasty and unique, yet with broad appeal to the masses (aka groggy college students stumbling their way to 8am classes on a Monday morning). Muffins fit the bill, but what kind? Typical of me, I couldn’t decide between my new favorite muffin, Black and Blue Muffins with Almond Streusel, or a muffin that I had yet to discover. So I went with both, as I was dying to try Coffee Cake Muffins by Sweet Pea’s Kitchen.

There was good and bad news. Which do you want first? Bad, you say? OK.

The bad news was that I couldn’t resist experimenting with what I thought were fool-proof Black and Blue Muffins. I decided to to use a mixture of three berries instead of the usual blackberries and blueberries. Also, the last time I made these muffins, I let the frozen berries defrost then added them to the batter. A lot of “bleeding” of the juice occurred, so I tried Joy of Baking’s suggestion of throwing the frozen berries into the batter directly. The result was that there was still bleeding, yet it also took longer to bake the muffins. By the time the top of the muffins were done, the bottom of the muffins were too dry 😦

I was devastated! There I was, trying to bake something good enough for people to pay money for, and it wasn’t my best work 😦 I wanted to scrap them completely but my husband convinced me that they were still very good…just not as good as the time before. So, reluctantly, I packaged them for the bake sale. Luckily, those bake sale patrons probably don’t know what they’re missing in terms of how good those muffins usually taste. But lesson learned: if it aint broke, don’t fix it!

But now for the good news. The coffee cake muffins were great! I wasn’t so sure about them when they first came out of the oven because they didn’t taste very sweet. But just a little glaze on top made all the difference. I was very pleased with these ones 🙂 I think my husband was, too. As he enthusiastically “tested” the muffins, he tried to convince me that were terrible (I could see through his motive: he wanted the muffins to stay at home with him). 🙂

Muffin win!

Coffee Cake Muffins with Sweet Glaze (recipe by Sweet Pea’s Kitchen)

Ingredients:

For the Streusel Topping:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

For the Muffins:

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream

For the Milk Glaze:

• 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk

Preparation:

• For the topping: In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Add the butter and toss with a fork to coat with the flour mixture. Mix on medium-low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with the butter pieces no larger than small peas. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl and place in refrigerator for 30 minutes before using.
• Preheat oven to 350F. Line 24 muffin cups with muffin liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
• For the muffins: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
• Using a hand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down bowl as needed. Stir in vanilla extract by hand. Add flour mixture and sour cream and stir until just combined.
• Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Sprinkle half of the strudel mixture over the muffins, gently pressing it into the batter. Sprinkle evenly with remaining strudel mixture.
• Bake rotating the pans halfway through until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool completely before removing muffins.
• To make milk glaze, whisk the powdered sugar and milk together in a small bowl.
• Place muffins on a wire rack set over a baking sheet and drizzle with glaze.

Glaze: Fun to eat, not to clean from counter

This story does have a happy ending. I learned a new muffin recipe, and even though my other muffins weren’t up to my standards,  they were still quite good. Better yet, the bake sale was a success and the club raised a lot of money. And we all lived happily ever after.