Coffee Cake Muffins
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This perfect coffee cake muffin recipe produces moist and tender muffins with a sweet and buttery cinnamon crumb topping. See recipe notes for how to make these muffins bakery-size!
Easy Coffee Cake Muffins Recipe
This coffee cake muffin recipe is a mini version of my reader-favorite cinnamon streusel coffee cake. With a moist and buttery crumb, chunky streusel topping, and everything you love about traditional coffee cake packed into a few bites, these sour cream coffee cake muffins are perfect for making ahead of time and having on hand for a quick snack or sweet accompaniment to your morning beverage.
When I made that cinnamon streusel coffee cake all those years ago, I was in coffee cake heaven. For days and days. We shared it with lots of people!
But if you’re not into having a whole bundt cake’s worth of coffee cake, these coffee cake muffins are nature’s way of letting you have your cake and eat it too– plus they freeze really well, so you can keep some stashed away for special cravings!
Love streusel as much as I do? Here are all of my recipes that have streusel in/on them. You’re welcome.
Coffee Cake Muffin ingredients
A few of the ingredients you see below are repeated in both the crumb topping and the muffin batter. Be sure you’re paying attention to what temperature/state the butter is for each component and have your butter divided accordingly.
FOR THE STREUSEL
• all-purpose flour
• brown sugar
• ground cinnamon
• salt
• unsalted butter
FOR THE MUFFINS
• all-purpose flour
• ground cinnamon
• baking powder
• baking soda
• salt
• unsalted butter
• brown sugar
• granulated sugar
• eggs
• vanilla extract
• sour cream or yogurt
While the recipe states you can use sour cream or yogurt, I make these coffee cake muffins with sour cream exclusively anymore. It brings the most moisture and fluffiest texture!
HOW TO MAKE THIS CINNAMON COFFEE CAKE MUFFINS RECIPE
These crumb cake muffins come together quickly, but you’ll want to build in about 15-20 minutes for the batter to rest. While the recipe suggests you make the streusel first and let it chill until the muffin batter is ready for the pan, you could also make the streusel while the batter rests.
STREUSEL
STEP #1
Place flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt into a small bowl, then toss with a fork to combine.
STEP #2
Add the cubed butter, then use the fork to press ingredients together until butter is in small chunks. Use your fingers to pinch pieces together until streusel is mostly small crumbles. Some large crumbles are ok. Set aside.
MUFFINS
STEP #3
In a medium size bowl, toss together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
STEP #4
In a large bowl with a handheld mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating on medium speed after each until combined. Add the vanilla and the yogurt and beat again on medium speed until completely incorporated.
STEP #5
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently with a spatula until no flour pockets remain. Allow the muffin batter to rest for 15-20 minutes (you do not need to cover it).
STEP #6
Once the batter has rested, spoon the batter evenly into the prepared wells. I like to use an ice cream scoop with a thumb trigger. Sprinkle a heaping Tablespoon of the streusel topping on each pile of batter, then bake.
MUFFIN LINERS VS NO LINERS
I personally prefer not to use liners for my muffins because the streusel topping tends to drop down the sides of the muffin batter better without one. This creates really delicious side-streusel once baked. Totally your preference– sometimes I mix and match during each batch!
Tips for the Best Coffee Cake Muffins
TIP #1
Be sure you’re baking the muffins at the initial high temperature to encourage them to bake up nice and tall. Do not open the door when you adjust the temperature down as the warm air will escape from the oven.
TIP #2
For best results, use full fat sour cream. Lower fat dairy is fine, but you will get the moistest crumb with the best flavor with a high fat sour cream or highest fat yogurt you can find.
TIP #3
If you want your muffins extra tall, allow the batter to rest 15-20 minutes before putting it into the muffin wells.
Coffee Cake Muffin Recipe storage
Leftovers can be kept covered tightly at room temperature up to 5 days or in the refrigerator up to one week. Muffins freeze well, up to 2 months. Thaw in fridge overnight or heat up in microwave for 15 seconds on high.
If I could offer you one piece of advice for leftover coffee cake muffins, it’s this: toast them in a toaster oven or air fryer.
The tops got extra crunchy and the middles stayed soft and moist. I’d even venture to say that they’re better a little toasted than straight up. But either way, you can’t go wrong with these coffee cake muffins.
Best Coffee Cake Muffins
Ingredients
CINNAMON STREUSEL
- ¼ cup (60g) all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons (25g) firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) cold unsalted butter cut into pieces
MUFFINS
- 1 and ¼ cup (180g) all-purpose flour be sure to measure properly
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature1
- ½ cup (100g) firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature1
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup (120g) full fat yogurt or sour cream2 room temperature1
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF (204ºC).
- Spray 9 wells of a 12 count muffin pan with non-stick spray3 or line with cupcake liners. Set aside.
CINNAMON STREUSEL
- Place flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt into a small bowl, then use a fork to combine.¼ cup (60g) all-purpose flour, 2 Tablespoons (25g) firmly packed light or dark brown sugar, ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ⅛ teaspoon salt
- Add the cubed butter, then use the fork to press ingredients together until butter is in small chunks. Use your fingers to pinch pieces together until streusel is mostly small crumbles. Some large crumbles are ok. Set aside.2 Tablespoons (28g) cold unsalted butter
MUFFINS
- In a medium size bowl, toss together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.1 and ¼ cup (180g) all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon salt
- In a large bowl with a handheld mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating on medium speed after each until combined. Add the vanilla and the yogurt and beat again on medium speed until completely incorporated.6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, ½ cup (100g) firmly packed light or dark brown sugar, ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ cup (120g) full fat yogurt or sour cream2
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently with a spatula until no flour pockets remain. Allow the muffin batter to rest for 15-20 minutes (you do not need to cover it).
- After the batter has rested, spoon the batter evenly into the 9 wells. One ice cream scoop full works best, totaling about ¼ cup of batter in each well. Sprinkle a heaping Tablespoon of the streusel topping on each pile of batter. Bake the muffins for 5 minutes, then without opening the oven door, reduce the temperature to 350ºF (177ºC) and bake for another 13-14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and allow muffins to cool in the pan at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Leftovers can be kept covered tightly at room temperature up to 5 days or in the refrigerator up to one week. Muffins freeze well, up to 2 months. Thaw in fridge overnight or heat up in microwave for 15 seconds on high.
Notes
- Room temperature ingredients: it is always a good rule of thumb to use room temperature ingredients when using room temperature butter. To bring eggs to room temperature quickly, place in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes.
- Yogurt/sour cream: you can use plain or vanilla flavored. You may also use Greek yogurt. For best results, use full fat. Recipe will work with lower fat, but just may not be as moist.
- Spray vs liners: I personally prefer not to use liners for my muffins because the streusel topping tends to drop down the sides of the muffin batter better without one. This creates really delicious side-streusel once baked. Totally your preference– sometimes I mix and match!
- Make jumbo muffins: use two ice cream scoops per well of a jumbo muffin pan and 2 Tablespoons of streusel per muffin. Increase the initial bake time to 7 minutes and the remaining bake time to 20-22 minutes.
Nutrition Disclosure
All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
These look great, I’ll have to try them when it cools down enough to use my oven again, ha ha. Congratulations on your new baby. 🙂 My kids are 18 months apart, the only advice I can give is sleep when you can and teach them both to wait 1 or even 2 minutes before attending every whim (dangerous situations and emergencies and such excluded, obviously). Learning this is often harder on mom than on the kids, lol.
While they were growing up we let our kids have unstructured playtime as often as possible (sometimes without mom or dad participating) and as a result they (now 8 and 9.5) are able to entertain themselves without relying on us to keep them busy or think of things for them to do. Good luck and enjoy your family
Thanks, Melisa! Our 2yo is pretty good at playing alone, and we’ve put that into practice a lot more recently. Hopefully baby bro can follow suit so we can eventually sit back and sip a beer while watching them play and/or fight, hahaha!
I sadly don’t have any sage advice for you, I still haven’t figured out how my mom did it with me and my sister who are 17 months apart with an older brother. I used to have way more patients, but I realize the older I get (I’m in my 30’s) the worse my patients is. I can tell you that I am in LOVE with these muffins. Especially the picture of the muffin and you can see there reflection, gorgeous. I think I definitely need to try these. They sounds so yummy. Although we are a jumbo muffin kind of house so I won’t have as many left over. I wish you luck in this whirlwind of parenthood. May there always be a yummy snack hiding in a good place with your name on it. 🙂
Thanks so much, Courtney!
We’re not in the having babies phase yet but I love how real you are about having kids! Also, these look amazing and I’m totally trying the recipe. =)
Thanks, Weez! xoxo
Super tasty and moist
Thanks, Tiffanie!
Best breakfast food!! These were so great!
Totally agree 🙂
Very easy to make, I didn’t make the topping just added a simple vanilla buttercream on top. Still delicious gone down well with a cup of coffee.
Thanks so much, Kelly!
These were so delicious! Thanks.
Thanks so much, Pat!
Great! I will be making a double recipe next time.
I approve!!
Made for breakfast. Turned out great. Tender and moist.
Great news, Bonita! Thank you!
Yummy and easy to make.
Thank you, LuAnn!
I feel like I’m eating cake for breakfast when making these! The recipe was easy to follow and the yogurt made them moist! I’m going to need to try them toasted. That sounds amazing!
Yes!! Thanks, sister!
I tried it! It came out perfectly. (I did cut back to only 1/4 c brown sugar. Its something I’ve always done. We don’t like overly sweet things.)I also like that it only makes 9 instead of 12. We can never seem to get through a dozen before they get stale.
Thanks so much, April!
These were PERFECT! Not too sweet, moist, flavorful muffins. Thank you!
Thanks so much, Jackie!
I am playing single parent for the weekend and was looking for easy prep/little finger friendly breakfasts. My little lady wanted muffins and we agreed on these delicious handheld (dare I say) treats!
They are quick and easy to bake; the muffin is super moist (I used Sour Cream, not the yogurt); and it’s a great recipe to bake with your small human. We loved these!
You made a GREAT choice!! Thanks so much for your review 🙂