Crumb-Topped Raspberry Muffins

Hello readers! It’s been a bit longer between posts than usual, but I was on a trip to France getting some inspiration for things to come on Kitchen Gusto! Check out my Twitter feed to see some of the amazing pastries that I sampled in Paris.

But now that I’m back, I’m celebrating home. And muffins are one of those homey things for me. That’s why this particular post is about my favorite muffins recipe.

A muffin is all about the top. There was even an entire Seinfeld episode dedicated to this truth. And for those of you who don’t remember it, here’s a sample:

So, I can’t really compete with that for fun and silliness. But I can share this recipe for a spiced muffin with a delicious crumb topping. The last time I made these, someone literally told me that it was the best muffin they had ever had. I don’t know about that, but they certainly are good! It’s a great basic muffin recipe I learned when taking classes with Carol Cotner Thompson, Director of Culinary Education at the New School of Cooking. We used blueberries in class, but I particularly like this with raspberries. The tartness of the berries plays well with the homey spice flavors.

Crumb-Topped Raspberry Muffins

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

This is a great basic muffin recipe with a delicious crumb topping. And a muffin top is the best part, right?

Author: Kitchen Gusto

Serves: 12

Ingredients

For the crumb topping:

• ½ cup (64 g) flour
• ½ cup (110 g) brown sugar
• ½ tsp (1.2 g) ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp (1.5 g) salt
• 2.5 oz (5 Tbsp or 71 g) cold butter

For the muffin batter:

• 2 cups (256 g) flour
• ¼ cup (32 g) granulated sugar
• ¼ tsp (1.2 g) ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp (3.4 g) ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp (1.2 g) allspice
• ½ tsp (3 g) salt
• 1 Tbsp (10.5 g) baking powder
• ½ cup (110 g) brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• ⅔ cup (158 ml) vegetable oil
• ⅔ cup (158 ml) milk
• 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
• 1.75 cups (200 g) fresh or frozen raspberries

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (177 C).
2. Either lightly butter or spray a 12 capacity muffin tin, or use muffin/cupcake papers.

For the crumb topping:

1. Combine the ingredients together and mix (with your fingers, a hand mixer, or a few pulses of the food processer) until the mixture is crumbly.
2. Put your crumb topping in the refrigerator as you make the muffin batter. (It can also be made a day or two ahead.)

For the muffin batter:

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, granulated sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, salt and baking powder. Do this with a whisk for a minute or so until well-combined, the mixture looks “fluffy” and there are no lumps.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the brown sugar, eggs, oil, milk, and vanilla extract. Whisk vigorously until the mixture is homogenous and well-combined.
3. Add the “wet” ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine just until fully mixed together.
4. Fold in the berries.
5. Divide the batter into the 12 muffin cups. It’s about ⅓ cup per regular-sized muffin tin. If you have a #20 disher/scooper, that also works well.
6. Top the muffins with about ½ inch (1.5 cm) of the crumb topping. You may have a little topping left over.
7. Bake for 25 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into a muffin. If it comes out without any wet batter on it (a few crumbs are fine), they’re done!
8. Transfer the muffins to a cooling rack and let cool before serving.

Notes

As a good basic muffin recipe, you can substitute other things in for the raspberries as you like. Especially good are blueberries or diced apples (use about 1 cup instead of the 1.75 cups of raspberries).

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Tagged as: muffins, raspberries