I’ve said it a gazillion times before but chocolate chip muffins are my favorite kind of muffin. Any kind of chocolate chip muffin is thumbs up in my book. So any time I see a new recipe or hear about one, or think of one, I have to make it. If you look in my muffin category (ooh, that that really sounds dirty…), you’ll see about 90% of them are chocolate chip.

Now, I’m a pretty good baker. I am. I make all kinds of shit from scratch, no mixes at all. I can wing it without a recipe if need be, I’ve substituted random things when I run out of eggs, etc and the final result has been pretty decent. I’ve made my own pasta, made a freakin’ OPERA CAKE and homemade eclairs, and they were all easy as pie, er, cake. However despite that… usually, streusel hates me. Seriously. I love it, but it just tries my patience every time. For something that simple, you’d think it’d be a breeze. But no. Streusel likes to fuck with me. One time I made it and it just disappeared into the cupcakes, leaving a sort of caramelized layer of brown sugar and flour (yeah, I was like “WTF!?”). Another time I made it and it didn’t look anything like streusel, but tasted delicious anyway. Another time I thought I had it, but it was just mush. This time though, streusel gave me a break. It realized how badly I want it, and gave in for once. I think I tricked it into working for me. How, I don’t know. But I did. Next time I’d use a light brown sugar instead of dark with these, but just for aesthetic reasons. The streusel actually came out like real streusel! Yippee!

This is a recipe altered from a previously altered Williams-Sonoma recipe that I found on Baking Blonde. Both her recipe and the original recipe sound delightfully good. As a matter of fact, unbeknownst to me, it seems that that Williams-Sonoma recipe is the same as the donut-muffin recipe I’ve been making for years! Or as Chichi calls them, “Mo’Nuts.” Awesome.

BUTTERMILK CHOCOLATE CHIP STREUSEL MUFFINS

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

• 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• half of a 12 oz package of chocolate chips (or more, if you like more)

For the streusel:

• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp  ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter, softened

1. Preheat an oven to 350°F. Grease standard muffin cups with butter or butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray; alternately, line them with cupcake liners, which is what I prefer to do.
2. To make the muffins, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, combine the butter and sugar and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well until pale and smooth.
3. In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Add to the butter mixture in 2 additions, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla. Stir just until evenly moistened. The batter will be slightly lumpy.
4. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each three-fourths full.
5. To make the topping, in a small bowl, mix the flour & brown sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or forks until mixture resembles cornmeal. Gently sprinkle topping evenly over batter in prepared muffin tin. Gently press down topping slightly.
6. Bake until the muffins are golden, dry and springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Unmold the muffins and let stand until cooled slightly.

Noms.

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I prefer my muffins room temperature so I didn’t eat them right away. But they were extremely yummy. Jay even liked them, and he’s the toughest person to please, being he hates sweets (well, not really hates, but he’d much rather have a pizza… or steak). I’m just so happy my streusel came out this time… but seriously, the muffins were really good. The liners are from sweet estelle’s baking supply, if anyone is interested.

Unfortunately I couldn’t wear one of my two new Two Lumps of Sugar cupcake aprons from Yoyo because they hadn’t arrived yet when these were baked. But I’m so happy and I can’t wait to use them- they bring my apron total to 11 now!  I know, I know, I have to take pictures. I’m really bad at that. I will though, I promise. I did take one picture though… because I was even more excited when I realized my nail polish matched one of the aprons!

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I know I have a problem, but aprons are useful as well as cute. So it’s a collection that isn’t completely useless gathering dust like… stamps or something. Like I said, my count is up to eleven now. Three Jessie Steele aprons with matching oven mitts (fall cupcake print, pink & brown polka dots & leopard print), two handmade aprons from Yoyo (one police-themed & one a reversible Halloween theme- you can buy one of her half apron creations at her store), and a few vintage half-aprons: a red, white & blue patriotic one & a vintage flowered print one, plus a birthday half-apron with a cupcake on it that isn’t vintage. Then I have one from Foodbuzz (just plain white with the logo) and then these two new gorgeous additions I got last week!

Psst… If you’re an apron maker, and you want to pimp your aprons… feel free to send one my way *wink* I’ll pimp you from now ’till next year! I’m always looking for new additions to my collection, especially handmade (but not exclusively handmade, I’m not opposed to a mass-manufactured apron- trust me) because I like to support craftspeople. Buy handmade!