Raisin Bran Muffins with Cinnamon Streusel
original post:http://greedygirlcooks.blogspot.com/2014/05/raisin-bran-muffins-with-cinnamon.html
Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 ½ cup wheat bran
1 ½ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup raisins
1/3 cup maraschino cherry liquid
1 cup buttermilk
1 table spoon molasses
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cinnamon Streusel topping
½ cup flour
¼ cup brown sugar
½ stick unsalted cold butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
- Place liners in you muffin/cupcake tray and set aside
- In a mixer beat the sugar and oil for about 3 minutes
- Combine the raisins and maraschino cherry liquid and heat in the microwave for 1 minute so the raisins absorb the liquid, set it aside to cool
- Add the egg to the sugar and oil mix and allow this to beat at high speed for another 3-5 minutes
- Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda together in a dish and mix
- In another dish combine the milk, vanilla, molasses and cooled raisin mixture (including the liquid), make sure the molasses is dissolved (should look like creamy coffee)
- On medium speed, add the wheat bran to the egg/oil/sugar mixture until it’s combined
- Then, on a lower speed add flour and milk/raisin mixture alternating ending with flour (see GTip)
- Using an ice-cream scoop fill the muffin/cupcake tin
For the streusel
- Cut ½ stick of cold butter into small cubes (see GTip)
- In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, butter and cinnamon, pulse until the grains resemble breadcrumbs.
- Sprinkle the streusel on each cupcake batter generously.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Greedy tips:
- Pay attention to the streusel it takes just a few seconds to form. If you pulse it for too longs the butter will start to melt and it will clump up into a dough ball. Remember you want it to be powdery and fine like breadcrumbs, larger clumps are ok. You can also make this in a bowl with a fork.
- The butter does not have to be frozen, but cutting them in cubes and freezing for 15 minutes, would aid in preventing premature melting, especially if you live in a hot area.
- Remember once you have added the wheat bran, flour and milk, you want to keep mixing to a minimum, you only mix until the ingredients have blended well together and then stop. If you over-mix your muffin will be dense and heavy because you would have removed too much air and built up too much gluten in the flour.
- Make the streusel last, I made mine after the batter was in the muffin cups, so they went strait on top and then into the hot oven