Peach Crumb Muffins with a tender, coffee cake-like crumb, sweet peach chunks, a swirl of homemade peach preserves, and a buttery streusel topping.Inspired by Cooks Illustrated's "Best Blueberry Muffins" May, 2009
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Total Time 1 hourhour
Servings 12large muffins, baked in a standard muffin pan
2cupspeaches, peeled, pitted, and cut into ½-inch dice
1cupplus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus 1 teaspoon additional for preserves
2-½cupsall-purpose flour
2-½teaspoonsbaking powder
1teaspoontable salt
2large eggs
4tablespoonsunsalted butter, melted and cooled
¼cupvegetable oil
1cupbuttermilk
1-½teaspoonsvanilla extract
½teaspoonalmond extract
Streusel topping
¾cupall-purpose flour
¼cuplight or dark brown sugar, firmly-packed
¼cupgranulated sugar
1teaspoonground cinnamon
6tablespoonscold unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch pieces
Instructions
Make the peach preserves
Place 1 cup diced peaches and 1 teaspoon granulated sugar in a small saucepan. Simmer over medium heat, stirring and mashing the peach chunks with a wooden spoon as they cook, until fruit is relatively smooth and reduced to about ¼ cup, about 5-6 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
Make the streusel topping
In a medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cinnamon. Cut butter into sugar mixture with a pastry blender, two knives, a fork, or your fingertips until coarse crumbs form. Set aside.
Make the muffins
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a standard muffin pan (12 muffins).
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and eggs until thick, pale, and glossy. Whisk in cooled melted butter and oil until combined, followed by buttermilk and extracts. Gently fold wet ingredients and remaining 1 cup of diced peaches into the flour mixture just until combined. For a tender crumb, don't over-mix, a few dry streaks of flour are ok.
Divide batter into the prepared pan, filling wells almost to the top for large, bakery-style muffins.** Place 1 teaspoon of peach preserves into the middle of each well and gently swirl into the batter with a toothpick. Top each muffin with a few tablespoons of streusel topping.
Bake until a tester inserted into the center of the muffins is clean, with just a few moist crumbs, 17-19 minutes. Cool muffins in pan for 5 minutes, then use two forks to gently lift muffins onto a wire rack until ready to serve.
Notes
*I like a goodly amount of streusel topping on my Peach Crumb Muffins. If you enjoy less, the streusel can be halved, or any leftover streusel can be frozen in a zip-top bag for up to a month to use in another batch of muffins.**Since, as per the original recipe, the wells are filled almost to the top with batter, they will crown as baking. Depending on the layout of your muffin pan (I love and use this one almost exclusively), the tops might run into each other a little bit, as they did in the photo above. If this happens, gently separate them with a knife when they come out of the oven. They will still be delicious!These muffins are best enjoyed the day they are baked, but once cooled, can be wrapped and stored at room temperature for up to three days and gently rewarmed.