Let it snow?

Good morning!  It's relatively rare lately that I managed to work on a post any time other than late at night, but I have the morning off.  We've finally been getting a taste of winter weather (overnight temps below freezing) down here in central Texas, and I'm really enjoying it.  There's just something so nice about a hot cup of tea and a warm muffin on a chilly morning.  No chance of snow, though, so I'm having to find my own snowflakes. =)  

I could have sworn that I'd already done a blog post on these muffins.  I've certainly made them plenty of times.  But I've found that there are a number of favorite recipes that for whatever reason haven't made it onto the blog.  It's time to do something about that.  These Coffeecake Muffins are from Cook's Illustrated, January 2007.  The recipe uses the food processor to mix everything up.  That alone should tell you how much I love them, because I am not often willing to pull out my food processor, since I hate washing it.  The batter is done in several steps, but after you've made the recipe a time or two, it becomes pretty easy to throw together.  One of the options in the recipe is to top the finished muffins with a powdered sugar glaze.  We always do that, since we love glaze.  Plus it helps keep the streusel on top from falling off. 

This batch of muffins also gave me a chance to try out the new snowflake papers that I got from KAF.  I don't like the design quite as much as the ones I ordered last year, but they're still nice.  I've said it before, but it is so worth it to spend the money on quality supplies.  The papers come off easily, without destroying whatever is inside, and the colors show up well, too.  

The verdict?  Of course, these were a hit with the whole family, as always.  We love coffeecake, and it's so handy to have it already portioned out.  Brianna and Gillian don't like nuts in baked goods, but they don't seem to have figured out that there are pecans in the streusel--they eat these up.  The muffins keep pretty well, and provided the girls with breakfast for several days.  I recommend microwaving the leftover muffins for about 10 seconds before eating them.  I think these would make a holiday breakfast treat.

If you'd like to give these a try for yourself, you can find the recipe here at Cook's Illustrated.  If you have a copy of Baking Illustrated, they're in there, too.