Muffins Rock my socks

Wow - life has been busy. I went skiing in Utah for a week and it took up three of my weeks with planning and recovering : ) Since I have been so swamped I haven't been in the kitchen all that much. This weekend I did make some blueberry muffins and they made me smile. This sour cream batter is very versatile and can be made into cinnamon streusal muffins (or a coffee cake), blueberry muffins, chocolate chip muffins, banana muffins, or just add any kind of fruit you like. This recipe is adapted from the Barefoot Contessa version. I don't like using cake flour because it is bleached, so instead I used all purpose unbleached flour. I haven't tried yet, but I imagine it would also work well with white wheat flour or a combination of whole wheat and all purpose flour. I plan on experimenting soon.

Sour cream makes these guys nice and moist - I use full fat organic sour cream, but any kind will work. Also, if you are out of sour cream I have also made these with plain or vanilla yogurt - they come out a little bit different - but still delicious! The sour cream and yogurt's acidity helps tenderize your muffin, so basically it is enhancing the natural beauty your muffin has to offer : )

Random fact: "Smetana" -is a heavy sour cream used in Slavic, Finnish and Hungarian cuisines.

Sour Cream Muffins:

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sour cream
2 1/2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar with blender until light and fluffy -4-5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time until well blended. Then blend in the vanilla and sour cream. Add dry to wet one cup at a time until fully incorporated. Be sure not to over mix...this will toughen up your batter, yielding a more dense product.

At this point you can get creative and add what you like. I always toss my mix ins with a tiny bit of flour to keep them from falling to the bottom. You can use fresh or frozen fruit. When I made the blueberry muffins this weekend I added 1 1/2 cups of frozen blueberries, then I topped it with the streusal topping. (recipe below). Fill muffin liners to the top - do not overfill - they will spill over when baked. Bake 15-20 minutes for regular muffin cups, and 20-25 for jumbo ones. Allow muffins to cool before removing them from the pan. Best eaten fresh and hot, but if not, cover completely before storing.

If you want to make a Coffee cake - pour 1/2 the batter into a greased 9x13 pan or a bunt pan. Sprinkle 1/2 streusal recipe over batter, cover with rest of batter and then the rest of the streusal. Bake 45-50 minutes.

Streusel:

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, optional...I usually don't add the nuts because people here don't like them : )