Fluffy coffee cake muffins topped off with a mountain of buttery, crumbly streusel!
These breakfast treats are simple to make and the mile high pile of streusel is absolutely addictive, good luck eating just one!
I should really probably just call these Coffee Cake Muffins “Streusel Muffins”, instead. Because that’s what we’re really here for, right? All that streusel.
I mean, I don’t want to sell the actual muffins short, they’re definitely incredible. They’re light, fluffy, perfectly sweetened, flavored with a hint of cinnamon, and made with a combination of butter and oil (for the best flavor and texture — a technique that I use in my banana muffins as well), but it’s the streusel that has me reaching for a second and then a third and then just maybeee picking off the muffin top of a fourth.
I might have a streusel obsession. How about you?
If you do, you’re going to love these coffee cake muffins as much as I do. Before we can get to the streusel, though, let’s briefly go over how to make the muffins bases.
If you take a look back at some of my most popular muffin recipes (for example, my chocolate chip muffins or blueberry muffins), you’ll probably notice that the base for each of these is extremely similar. After lots of muffin fails, I determined a few key winning tips that make for some of the best muffins possible.
First, we start with a combination of butter and oil. Oil makes muffins nice and soft and fluffy, while butter has a great flavor that oil is lacking, but tends to make muffins a bit too dense. By using half of each instead of committing to just one 100%, we get soft and fluffy coffee cake muffins that also have a great, buttery flavor.
You may also notice that I add cornstarch to the dry ingredients. In my experience, this also helps to make the muffins nice and soft (a technique I also use in my secret ingredient chocolate chip cookies!).
Alright, now let’s talk about how we make all that streusel.
While many streusel recipes start with cold butter, today’s begins with melted butter, which is a technique that I use with my cinnamon coffee cake. I also think it’s much easier to make streusel this way rather than by using a pastry cutter, so that’s another reason this technique is a win for me.
How Do I Make Streusel for Coffee Cake Muffins
Firsts, melt your butter. Cut it into pieces before popping it into the microwave so that it melts evenly and doesn’t explode all over your microwave. Speaking of which, I need to clean my microwave.
Maybe cover the bowl with a piece of wax paper to prevent any potential messes.
Let the butter cool for a bit while you stir together your flour, sugar, and cinnamon. While we want it to be melted, you also want to be sure the butter isn’t scorching hot before you add it to the dry ingredients. Use a fork to work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs (like in the photo above), don’t overwork it or you’ll end up with a paste rather than a crumble. The best part of the streusel is those buttery, sugary clumps!
I use my hands to pile up the streusel evenly over the muffin batter, and gently press down to snuggle that streusel into the coffee cake muffin batter.
Bake everything on 375 and enjoy!
PS: when I share coffee cake recipes I often get a lot of questions about where the coffee is in the recipe. I’m not sure if coffee cake is more of an American thing, but coffee cake is typically just a treat that’s served as a nice complement to your coffee, not one that’s made with coffee. I hope that helps clear things up!
How to Make Coffee Cake Muffins
Coffee Cake Muffins
Ingredients
Muffins
- ¼ cup melted butter (57g)
- ¼ cup canola oil may substitute vegetable oil (60ml)
- ¾ cup sugar (150g)
- ¼ cup brown sugar tightly packed (50g)
- 1 large egg + 1 egg white room temperature preferred
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup buttermilk room temperature preferred (120ml)
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour (220g)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons corn starch (cornflour in UK)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
Streusel topping:
- 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour (156g)
- ½ cup light brown sugar tightly packed (100g)
- ⅓ cup sugar (66g)
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 6 Tablespoons butter melted (85g)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and line a 12-count muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
- Combine your melted butter and canola oil in a large bowl. Stir well.
- Add sugar and stir to combine.
- Add egg, egg white, and vanilla extract. Stir very well, until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. Add buttermilk and stir.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, corn starch, cinnamon and salt.
- Using a spatula, gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet, taking care not to over-mix the batter (which will make your muffins dense and tougher).
- Evenly divide the batter into prepared muffin tin, filling each liner about ⅔ of the way full. Set aside and prepare your streusel topping.
Streusel
- Prepare your streusel by whisking together flour, sugars and cinnamon.
- Pour the melted butter into the mixture and, using a fork, stir until crumbles form.
- Using your hands, evenly divide streusel over muffin batter, piling the streusel over the batter and gently pressing the topping into the batter.
- Bake on 375F for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
- Allow to cool before serving.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Paula
Hello-
As I love your coffee cake cookies and your blueberry muffin cookies, I was thinking of making these muffins and adding some fresh blueberries to the batter. What do you think? I prefer this crumble topping to a sugar/cinnamon topping which I seem to usually find in blueberry muffin recipes. Thank you!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Paula! That should work just fine here. We hope you love them!
Ella
Hi this is the best recipe ever. Thank you for all your hard work. I had no problem making these muffins and my family loved them. Is there a way I can double the recipe?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad you love it, Ella! Yes, you can double the recipe without issue. Enjoy ☺️
Deb
I noticed this recipe uses buttermilk but does not call for baking soda. Some of your other recipes do call for baking soda when using buttermilk. What determines when to use baking soda along with the buttermilk, and when the baking soda is not needed? Just wanting to learn more about the science of baking when it comes to buttermilk in recipes😊
Thank you for all your great recipes!! 😊
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Deb! In recipes like this, the buttermilk is added to enhance the flavor and moisture of the final product. In recipes where baking soda is also used, the acidic buttermilk helps with leavening. We talk more about this in our baking powder vs. baking soda post and our buttermilk substitute post, if you’d like to read more 😊
Deb
Sam, I have made your banana muffins and they are yummy 😊 I would like to make some of your other muffin recipes as well, all of which are made using buttermilk. Your banana muffin recipe and your pumpkin muffin recipes call for both baking soda and baking powder, which I realize is the norm when baking with buttermilk. But your chocolate chip muffins and coffee cake muffins recipes call only for baking powder, no baking soda. Is that because those two recipes have cornstarch in the recipes? Just curious 😉, absolutely not criticism meant 😊
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Deb! The banana muffins and pumpkin muffins use baking soda to create extra lift, since adding moist ingredients like the bananas and pumpkins could cause dense muffins. The chocolate chip and coffee cake muffins are fine with just the baking powder. Hope that helps! 😊