We just flew back last night from being out in Boston and watching our oldest son, Barry, run the Marathon. What a picture perfect day it was and it was so exciting to see him take part in such a great event. He worked hard to get there. I loved the atmosphere at the race, with everyone cheering total strangers on and people applauding the military and all the "Boston Strong" tee shirts. I've never seen so many policemen in my life. And an American with an incredible background story won the men's race - how awesome was that? Here's a picture of Barry after the finish line:
The recipe I'm sharing with you today is one of my new favorite recipes. These coffee cake muffins are amazing and yes, they go perfectly with a cup of coffee! They are so moist and rich and they are topped off with a drizzle of cream cheese glaze. This cake was originally a regular coffee cake by Ina Garten made with sour cream and then Maria over at Two Peas and Their Pod made it into a coffee cake using greek yogurt instead of the sour cream. I really liked that idea so I tried it and the cake was sooooo good it became a favorite of mine to serve.
I love these bakery style tulip baking cups and wanted a new muffin recipe to serve and then I thought of this coffee cake and how nice it would be as muffins - they're almost like cinnamon roll muffins, with the cream cheese glaze. I buy the tulip cups from Kitchen Krafts, but you can get them a lot of places on the internet if you do a Google search. I like them so much more than regular muffin cups. They make any muffin recipe look special. You can get 100 of them for $20. They come in different colors and designs, too.
When using these kind of cups, you cannot just place them on a baking sheet - once the batter heats up, they fall apart. So make sure to place them in a muffin tin or better yet, use a popover pan to hold them upright.
When measuring thick ingredients like yogurt, it helps to use a Wonder Cup. If you don't have one, you'll love how easy it is to measure things like peanut butter, sour cream and honey that are usually hard to measure in a regular measuring cup. The plunger in the Wonder Cup pushes every drop out with no waste.
Coffee Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting
for a printable recipe only, click here
makes 10 large muffins
Ingredients:
for the muffins:
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1¼ cups plain Greek yogurt
- 2½ cups cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the streusel:
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
For the cream cheese glaze:
- 3 ounces softened cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- ⅔ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons milk, or enough to make it a glazing consistency
Instructions:
2. Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for 4 to 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and Greek yogurt. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.
3. For the streusel, place the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a bowl and pinch together with your fingers until it forms a crumble.
4. Spoon about ¼ cup of the batter in each baking cup, followed by about 2 teaspoons of the streusel, another ¼ cup of batter and then 2 teaspoons of the streusel on top. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.
5. Remove baking cups from pan and allow to cool on a wire rack.
6. To make the cream cheese glaze, beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar. Add the vanilla extract and milk. Beat until smooth and until you have a glaze consistency. Drizzle cream cheese glaze over cooled muffins and serve.
Adapted from Ina Garten
