Sour Cream Coffee Cake muffins made with fresh cranberries. A small batch of sour cream coffee cake muffins is the best weekend breakfast I know!
We're heading into the last part of the year. The chilly part. The bake-all-day-to-keep-your-house-warm part. I love it.
Each month, I make a list of foods I want to eat to set the mood for the month. Sometimes, the list has exact foods, like Chai Cookie Bars. Other times, I write a general feeling that I want my meals to have, like 'hearty and comforting.' And then, I often consider your lovely self, and what foods you would like to eat this month, too.
For the month of December, I wrote: comfort food, cookies, and sweet breakfasts to share. Does that seem right to you? Are those the things you'd like to stuff in your face, too? While it's a sunny 55-degrees where I live right now, I think we all need warm, cozy dinners, cookies for dessert, and something sweet to lure us out of bed in the mornings.
A how-to video for making sour cream coffee cake muffins:
(Sometimes the video jumps to the side of the page, so check there if you don't see it).
You can use fresh blueberries like I did in the video, or any other fresh berries you like here. I use blueberries in the summer and cranberries in the fall, naturally.
We're starting here with sweet breakfasts to share. These cranberry streusel muffins made with sour cream were first on my list.
A few years ago, I made rhubarb cinnamon muffins from a Fine Cooking Magazine, and my eyes were opened to how lovely tangy fruit pairs with warm cinnamon. I love sweet and sour rhubarb, but I loved it even more when it was sprinkled with cinnamon. While we are months away from my beloved rhubarb (and my revered Rhubarb Crisp), we have cranberries!
I stirred cranberries into my sour cream coffee cake muffin batter, amped up the streusel topping (or is it called crumb topping?), and plopped it in muffin cups. The recipe makes 5 muffins. Two for me, two for you, and one for the dog, perhaps?
That's the way it goes in my house.
The muffin pan I typically is vintage, and I love it because it only has 6 cups! But, if you’re lacking your grandmother’s vintage small muffin pan like me, here’s a great substitute!
Also, you may substitute full-fat Greek yogurt for the sour cream, if you prefer.
Sour Cream Coffee Cake Muffins
Sour Cream Coffee Cake Muffins
Ingredients
Streusel topping:
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
For the muffins:
- ¼ cup neutral oil (grapeseed or canola)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 large egg, beaten
- ¼ cup sour cream (or full-fat yogurt)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup fresh cranberries
Instructions
- First, preheat the oven to 375, and line a small muffin pan with 5 liners.
- Next, make the streusel: in a small bowl, stir together all the ingredients with a fork. It will stick together and form large clumps. Set aside.
- Next, make the muffins: In a medium bowl, add the oil, sugar, and salt. Stir together very well, and then add the egg, sour cream, and vanilla extract. Stir to combine.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together the cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add this to the wet ingredients and stir to combine.
- Finally, stir in the cranberries.
- Scoop out enough batter to fill the muffin cups half way. Add a generous tablespoon of streusel topping on top. Then, top with the remaining batter. Sprinkle the rest of the streusel mixture on top of the muffins.
- Bake for 19-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean with moist crumbs. Let cool in the pan for a few minutes before serving.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
5Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 359Total Fat: 19gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 13gCholesterol: 56mgSodium: 130mgCarbohydrates: 44gFiber: 1gSugar: 28gProtein: 4g
Carmen F. says
This is one of my favorite go-to recipes. I'm single so this is the perfect amount of muffins for myself. I always end up adding more cranberries and call for and it comes out so good.
V says
These muffins were exciting. I know that's a weird way to describe a baked good, but the streusel plus the bites of jammy cranberry, the cinnamon, the vanilla, the way my house smelled like a donut shop... I could go on. The textural variance was so great. I used vanilla paste instead of extract, which was a delightful complement to the cinnamon notes here.
Peggy R Henderson says
Can one substitute dried cranberries for fresh? I keep dried cranberries on hand all year round.
Christina Lane says
Yes :)
Bonnie says
Thank you! I have a fabulous muffin recipe but it makes twelve and the mold monster gets to them too fast. I use whole berry cranberry jelly and put a bit of that in the middle of the muffin. It’s a nice surprise. I know what’s for breakfast tomorrow!
CindyV says
These were so good!! Confession time - I didn't actually read the full recipe ahead of time and I missed the tidbit about putting a layer of topping in the middle. Instead, I filled the muffin liners with batter- and my muffin tin must be slightly small because I got 6 muffins - then I read about the layer and went oopsy... So I put the first tablespoon of crumbly topping on top of the batter and pretty much pressed it into the center (submersing it in batter), then I put the rest of the streusel on top, and popped into the over for 20 minutes. Turned out just fine!
LoisM says
Has anyone used blueberries instead of cranberries? I have some that need using up.
Christina Lane says
That will work.
Joanne Thomiszer says
I'm confused with this recipe, it says blueberry and the recipe itself says cranberry?
Christina Lane says
You can use either.