Muffins go retro with oat crumble topping

Published 4:09 pm Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Bake these muffins over the weekend and you’ll thank yourself when you have an easy breakfast to enjoy with your morning coffee. Or save it for a nice pick-me up on a sluggish afternoon.

Retro crumble muffins

1 tablespoon salted butter, melted

1 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup rolled oats

½ cup whole wheat flour

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 or 4 chunks

1 tablespoon warm water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup cultured buttermilk

2 eggs

Prep: Brush a 12-muffin tin with the melted butter. Heat oven to 350.

Pulse: Measure brown sugar, all-purpose flour, oats, whole wheat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt into the food processor. Pulse several times. Drop in butter chunks and pulse a few times, until crumbs range in size from specks to peas. Dump this crumble into a large mixing bowl. Scoop out ½ cup crumble and set it aside.

Whisk: In a glass measuring cup, whisk smooth the water, vanilla, baking powder and baking soda (it will foam up). Whisk in buttermilk, then eggs.

Check: Did you set aside that ½ cup crumble? If not, you’ll be sorry. Pour buttermilk mixture over the big bowl of crumble. Use a soft spatula to fold to a smooth, thick batter.

Portion: Scoop batter into prepared muffin tin (an ice-cream scoop makes this easy). Sprinkle top of each muffin with reserved crumble.

Bake: Slide tin onto the oven’s center rack and bake until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool a few minutes. Enjoy warm.

Prep: 20 minutes. Bake: 25 minutes.

Makes: 12 standard-size muffins.