Cinnamon Chip Muffins

Recently we had a new member join our team at work.  I really wanted to do something nice to welcome her and thought a basket of muffins had the perfect “welcome to the neighborhood” vibe.  The muffins also had the added benefits that they only used ingredients that I already had in the house and could be thrown together in 20 minutes, which made them ideal considering I had to bake them on a night I got home from work at 9 pm.

I used the basic muffin recipe from The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion and toyed with a number of different add-ins: frozen blueberries, Craisins, bananas, but finally settled on these mini cinnamon chips that have been in my freezer for ages.  What a great ingredient!  They dissolved into little bits of streusel in the muffin, slightly crunchy and full of cinnamon flavor.

All-Star Muffins

Yield: (according to the recipe 16 large muffins) I got 20 muffins out of the recipe

3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose or cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
8 tbsp. butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream

Favorite add-ins – I used 1 cup mini cinnamon chips, 1/2 cup of toasted slivered almonds, and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

You could also use 3 cups of fresh fruit or 2 cups of dried fruit soaked in 1/2 cup of orange juice

Preheat the oven to 400º.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together with a handheld or stand mixer until light and fluffy and almost white in color.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add the vanilla and sour cream and beat until combined.  Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until the batter is smooth.  Fold in your add-ins.

Fill the muffin liners 2/3 full and bake 18 to 24 minutes, until a cake test inserted in the center comes out clean.  (Mine were done after 20 minutes).  Remove them from the oven, cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove the muffins from the pan to finish cooling on the rack.  (Muffins left in the pan to cool will become tough from steaming.)