Friday, August 14, 2009

COFFEE CAKE STREUSEL MUFFINS

This is a wonderfully flavorful and light dessert muffin with chocolate chips incorporated in a crunchy, sweet topping and drizzled with warm caramel. To make it a little less sinful, I reduced the fat and sugar and switched the all-purpose flour to Ultragrain (30% whole wheat). The nice thing about the changes is that no one will know. The muffin doesn't taste "healthy," and, in fact, it isn't healthy. It has chocolate, sugar and some butter in it, in addition to the caramel topping and flour. Did you know there are over 400 calories in 1 cup of flour, whether it's whole grain or stripped all-purpose? This muffin will impact your diet a little less than it would with the original ingredients, but it will still impact your diet. You can find the original recipe on the Land o' Lakes website, along with some other great recipes.

Coffee Cake Streusel Muffins
Adapted from Land o' Lakes
Rating: 8 out of 10
STREUSEL TOPPING: 2/3 cup milk chocolate chips (or semi-sweet, if you prefer)
1/2 cup toasted walnuts or pecans, broken or chopped
3 Tbsp. quick oats
1/4 cup sugar (I used 3/4 tsp. Stevia + 2 Tbsp. brown sugar)
1 Tbsp. melted butter
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Combine all ingredients in small bowl; set aside.
MUFFINS: 2 Tbsp. melted butter
3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 Tbsp. Stevia)
2 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 tsp. coffee essence*
1 cup light sour cream
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup Ultragrain flour (or 1 cup all-purpose flour, if preferred)
1/2 cup quick oats (not instant)
1-1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. sea salt
*Coffee essence: Combine equal parts of instant coffee granules and coffee brandy, or your favorite liqueur. Store in fridge to use as needed.
DRIZZLE: Purchased caramel topping
Heat oven to 350F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray, or grease well.
In medium bowl, whisk together butter, sugar, eggs, and flavorings. Add sour cream and applesauce and whisk till smooth and well combined. In a separate large bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Add wet ingredients all at once to dry ingredients and whisk lightly, till just barely combined. Do not overmix.
Spoon half of batter into muffin wells. Top with half the streusel. Repeat. Bake 16-17 minutes, or till muffins are done. (Test with toothpick.) Cool in pans 10 minutes, then lift muffins out of pans onto wire rack to finish cooling. Before serving drizzle with microwaved caramel topping, if desired. Yield: 12 muffins



17 comments:

♥peachkins♥ said...

Judy, this looks sinfully delicious!

Katrina said...

Those definitely look GREAT!

chow and chatter said...

these are fab send me one pretty please

Denise said...

Oh my, these look wonderful, Judy.

Coleens Recipes said...

Holy cow, Judy, that is one seriously good looking muffin!!

Reeni said...

These look positively scrumptious Judy!!!

Queen B. said...

That looks AMAZING !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Barbara Bakes said...

I could eat this for breakfast and be happy!

Gera@SweetsFoodsBlog said...

Ohh Judy the first pic is calling my name they're so perfect airy-chocolatey
I want the entire batch…

Cheers!

Gera

i♥pinkc00kies said...

now that looks awesome! :D

Linda said...

These muffins look amazing. What a great tip about the coffee essence--I've not heard of that! I always forget about Land o' Lakes website--there are wonderful recipes there.

Donna-FFW said...

You know this one is right up my alley!!

Sylwia said...

Ohh, Judy, as always your creations make my mouth water! These look too good!!!

Kerstin said...

Oh wow, these look so delicious and I love that picture with the caramel drizzling off!

Martha said...

OMG, do those ever look good! Wow!

Linda said...

Hmmmm... looks so good I want to just snatch it off the page and eat it right now!

Katrina said...

Ooh, love that new photo at the top of your blog!

My ice cream maker is a Cuisinart (a lot of people have told me it's the same one they have when I posted a picture of it on my blog.) It was about $50 on Amazon. The blueberry ice cream is really good!