"Food Fridays" and Coffee Cake Muffins!

Sometimes I make things that my kids don't care for too much, but these definitely aren't one of those things.  Here's my daughter's response after trying a muffin, "Mommy, you can make these again!"  As if I need the permission of a six year old to cook something...but, it's always nice to know your cooking is appreciated!  These are, in fact, the birthday breakfast of choice for her!  So, here's the recipe for these scrumptious muffins:

Coffee Cake Muffins

Ingredients:

Topping

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter

raisins

Muffin Batter

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup rapadura sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon Watkins ground cinnamon (this stuff is wonderful!)

1/4 teaspoon allspice (or you could use ginger)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup slightly softened butter

1 beaten egg

1/3 cup applesauce

1/2 cup buttermilk or *sour milk

*You can make sour milk as a replacement for buttermilk by putting 1/2 cup of milk in a measuring cup and adding 3-4 drops of lemon juice.  Allow this to sit for about 5 minutes before mixing into your batter.*

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  
2. Grease 12 regular-sized muffin cups or line them with paper baking cups.
3. For the topping, stir together all the dry topping ingredients in a small bowl.  Then, cut in the 2 tablespoons of butter with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Do not mix in raisins.  Set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, mix the 1 1/2 cups flour, rapadura sugar, baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, allspice, baking soda, and salt.  Cut in the 1/4 cup butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. 
5. In a small bowl, combine the egg, applesauce and buttermilk.  Add this mixture all at once to the flour mixture.  Stir until just moistened.  Batter will be thick.
6. Spoon half of the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each about 1/3 full.  Top with about half of the topping and sprinkle 5-6 raisins in each cup as well.  Cover with the remaining batter, evenly divided among the muffin cups.  Finish by sprinkling the remaining topping mixture on each.



Ready for the oven!  

7. Bake at 400 for 15-18 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
8. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes.  Serve warm.
9. Enjoy!