Allspice Crumb Muffins

I had every good intention of posting this before Valentine’s Day. (I had an extremely hectic week last week.) Not because this is a valentine-y recipe, but because I used the heart-shaped silicone muffin molds I got for Christmas last weekened on the same morning my daughter happened to be wearing her jammies dotted with hearts. (It was a coincidence, I promise.)

Trying to distract Sophie in the other room while I’m baking is useless, so I try to accommodate her and pull up a chair to the counter. I grab a bowl and sprinkle a little of what I’m using into it and let her stir (and lick) away.

Sometimes that works, and sometimes little fingers find their way into what I’m doing despite my efforts to distract her.

So, about these muffins . . . they were moist, tender, buttery, and everything I love about a good muffin — including a streusel topping. I’m not sure if it was the size/shape of my muffin molds, but they overflowed in the oven. Next time I’ll try to spread the batter out into 14 molds instead of the dozen recommended by the recipe.

Allspice is usually used as a pinch or so in the background of cinnamon, nutmeg, or cloves, but it stood alone in these muffins. It gave it an interesting flavor that might be hard to put your finger on if you didn’t know what was in it. I was really happy with these, and because I’d found another great (muffin) recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s book.

From Baking: From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan

Streusel:
1/2 c flour
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground allspice
5 T cold butter, cut into bits

Muffins:
2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1 stick (8 T) butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
3/4 c whole milk
1/4 tsp vanilla
Grated zest of 1 lemon (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare 12 muffin molds with either nonstick spray or paper liners. You could also use silicone molds, which require neither.

Prepare streusel by blending the flour, brown sugar and allspice. Mix in the cold butter either by using your fingers or a pastry blender. Mixture should be crumbly and the butter should be the size of peas. Place in the refrigerator until your ready to use it. (It can be stored, covered, for up to three days.)

To make the muffins, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, allspice and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk until thoroughly combined. Add brown sugar and blend, ensuring there are no lumps. In a separate bowl, whisk the butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry; stir until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. Don’t over mix! Batter should be sorta lumpy. It’s fine that way. Blend in the lemon zest, if using.

Spoon the batter into prepared muffin molds and top with streusel mixture, pressing a little with your fingers. You should have some streusel mixture leftover. Place muffin pan (or molds) onto a baking sheet and bake for 20-24 minutes until a knife inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove and cool for a few minutes before removing from molds.

Nat’s Notes
1. I used about 1/2 tsp of lemon zest and thought it brightened the flavors a bit. It didn’t taste lemony.
2. The original recipe used unsalted butter, but I spaced it and used regular, as well as the full amount of salt. I didn’t think they were salty at all, so feel free to use either type of butter.

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Breads - Sweet, Breakfast

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