Kricket Cakes

We’re already on to recipe #2! And, as promised, this recipe is much less involved than the last.

I am sometimes crumby and mean in the morning and love to have the company of a muffin that cheers me up with its crumby topping and mean blueberry flavor! We ate these with John’s nephew Jesse who said “um, I didn’t ask for blueberries in mine” and then after the first bite followed with “mmmm, yeah I guess I like it.” Enough said, we gobbled them down!

This is a pretty basic muffin that is a little fluffier than most. The muffin itself is not super sweet but the crumb topping is. If making the muffins without the crumb topping, I would definitely use a little bit more sugar. Makes one dozen muffins (sometimes only 11 if you want them to be giant). If you are sometimes too crumby and mean to bake in the morning, but would be cheered by fresh muffins not long after you wake, you can prepare the recipe the night before and refrigerate them in the muffin tin. Just pop in the oven and add a couple of minutes to the baking time!

Crumby Topping

This recipe is based on Joy of Cooking’s Streusel #1. It is crunchy sweet goodness. In fact the only thing crumby about it is the big mess it makes when it crumbs itself all over the place!

• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup raw almonds
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 pinch salt

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan
2. Finely chop the almonds by hand or in a food processor
3. Mix all ingredients together using a food processor or a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs
4. Set aside and go on to make the muffin batter

Mean Muffin

This recipe is based on Alton Brown’s Old School Muffins. (They actually are sorta nice muffins, some might even call them friendly if they were hungry enough.)

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2-2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Grease muffin tin or line with muffin liners
3. Whisk, sift or food process the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl, set aside.
4. Whisk the sugar, oil, egg, egg yolk and buttermilk in a medium bowl
5. Pour the liquid mixture into the large bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir with a large wooden spoon until just mixed
6. Dump in the blueberries and stir gently
7. Portion batter evenly into muffin tin
8. Cover each unbaked muffin with Crumby Topping, pressing it into the batter lightly
9. Bake for 17-21 minutes or until a tootpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean
10. Remove from oven and let muffins cool in tin for 5-10 minutes
11. Carefully attempt to remove a muffin. If you haven’t used liners, run a knife around the edge of the muffin to loosen it. If the muffin falls apart or doesn’t want to come out, let them sit in the pan a little longer. When you can successfully get them out in one piece, transfer the muffins to a cooling rack and let cool for an additional 5 minutes. Don’t leave them in the tin too long or they may get soggy bottoms or overbake.
12. Muffins are best eaten right away (with tea, coffe, or some kind of milk), but will stay tasty for about 3 days, if stored tightly covered in the fridge

(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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This entry was posted on Sunday, August 24th, 2008 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Muffins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.