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Egg Nog Crumb Muffins

Let’s start planning a holiday breakfast with these Egg Nog Crumb Muffins!

Egg Nog Crumb Muffins, rich with egg nog, topped with big chunks of sweet buttery crumbs, then graced with a dusting of confectioner's sugar.

I’m kind of done talking about cookies. Okay, maybe not done, but I finally finished all of my cookie baking, or at least I think I have. It’s always such a big feat to get through baking a ton of cookies. It seems like a giant mountain to climb each year. It’s a fun climb, but a climb none the less. Just as I finish, though, I start wanting to bake more, because now I’m only thinking about the latest new recipe I want to develop. One more recipe seems like “nothing” after conquering a long list of treats. #insanityatwork

Egg Nog Crumb Muffins, rich with egg nog, topped with big chunks of sweet buttery crumbs, then graced with a dusting of confectioner's sugar.

I can’t believe Christmas is this weekend. I can’t stop the clock, so I figure it’s time to think about some fun holiday breakfast ideas. First up, these Egg Nog Crumb Muffins. I love, love, love egg nog. Two of my favorite egg nog recipes are already on the blog. Egg Nog Kringla is a pillowy light cookie with great egg nog flavor. Then it’s dusted with powdered sugar and freshly grated nutmeg.

Then there’s Egg Nog Ice Cream with Hot Buttered Rum Sauce. Now that’s something special. The ice cream is uber creamy and the hot buttered rum sauce is so buttery and rummy and caramelly. Ugh, when the hot sauce hits the cold ice cream and the ice cream starts to melt? Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. It’s the perfect bite.

Egg Nog Crumb Muffins, rich with egg nog, topped with big chunks of sweet buttery crumbs, then graced with a dusting of confectioner's sugar.

Today’s recipe started with a search for good egg nog. I like to buy egg nog that is free from alot of extras in the ingredients. So I bought Trickling Springs Egg Nog. We’ve had their chocolate milk before. That’s a real treat for the kids. They rarely get chocolate milk, so when we pick up a bottle of Trickling Springs, I swear it’s almost like drinking a milk shake. And that’s why we’ve only had it a few times. I always tell my kids that a treat is that something you only have sometimes. If you have it every day, it’s called your diet :)  I wanted a full fat egg nog because I was working on other recipes that I thought would benefit from full fat vs. a reduced fat nog.

So, I bought my egg nog in a nostalgic returnable glass bottle. The stuff was thick…and rich. It was delicious, but honestly, you couldn’t drink a lot of it. It was like drinking a milk shake. Sooo good, but more is not better. I ended up cutting it with milk for the kids to drink. It’s amazing how a little bit of egg nog can flavor a whole glass of milk.

Egg Nog Crumb Muffins, rich with egg nog, topped with big chunks of sweet buttery crumbs, then graced with a dusting of confectioner's sugar.

The first trial only yielded 11 muffins. Unacceptable. I also had a texture issue. I figured I needed more egg nog. Onto trial two. More egg nog. Still had a texture issue. I knew there were two culprits. I really needed more liquid, but not in the form of more egg nog. The egg nog was so thick it wasn’t giving me enough moisture for the muffin. So, I cut the egg nog with some milk, just as I had done for my kids. Your egg nog might not be as thick. If it isn’t, you could skip cutting it with milk and just use all egg nog. I wrote the recipe with just the egg nog. The option of thinning it with milk is written in the notes section.

The other culprit was ingredient temperature. My recipe uses melted butter. When melted butter meets cold ingredients, it solidifies. This happened to me one impatient baking day with Strawberry Cake. And it happened to me a couple of times with this recipe. I was testing so many recipes that day that I just rushed the process.

You need room temperature eggs and egg nog (and milk, if you end up using it.) Then your butter won’t clump. If it clumps, then your muffin texture will be kind of dense. If somehow after this warning, that happens to you, serve your muffins warm. If you want to avoid any possibility of it happening at all, use oil instead of butter. But I think the best thing is just to make sure that you’re not mixing warm melted butter with cold egg nog, milk and eggs.

Egg Nog Crumb Muffins, rich with egg nog, topped with big chunks of sweet buttery crumbs, then graced with a dusting of confectioner's sugar.

I wanted to make these a little more special, so I added a generous crumb topping. And I do mean generous. You could easily cut the crumb portion of the recipe in half and still have plenty of crumbs, but I went to town and made boulders of sweet buttery crumbs and piled them high. I cut the butter into the sugar and flour mixture just as I do for scones, biscuits and pie crusts. Then I just worked the mixture with my hands until it formed one solid ball. After that, it’s just a matter of breaking and sprinkling chunks and bits and pieces of the crumb mixture on top of the muffins.

Egg Nog Crumb Muffins, rich with egg nog, topped with big chunks of sweet buttery crumbs, then graced with a dusting of confectioner's sugar.

When they bake, the batter will lift up all of those crumbs and spread them around. Now you’ll have a crumby, bumpy muffin top. I think the textural top looks fun. A little sprinkling of powdered sugar and you’ll have one festive muffin.

Egg Nog Crumb Muffins, rich with egg nog, topped with big chunks of sweet buttery crumbs, then graced with a dusting of confectioner's sugar.

Egg Nog Crumb Muffins have a texture that’s a little rich, like a coffee cake. The crumb topping is crunchy, buttery and sweet. You’ll find yourself snacking on the bigger chunks of crumb. I made half the crumb recipe during version 4 or 5 and while it was plenty of crumbs, I kind of liked the recipe with the extra crumbs. After all, this isn’t our daily diet, is it?

Egg Nog Crumb Muffins, rich with egg nog, topped with big chunks of sweet buttery crumbs, then graced with a dusting of confectioner's sugar.

This is a treat….(she writes while sipping some egg nog;) #truth

Egg Nog Crumb Muffins, rich with egg nog, topped with big chunks of sweet buttery crumbs, then graced with a dusting of confectioner's sugar.

Egg Nog Crumb Muffins

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients

For the muffins:

  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
  • 2 eggs, room temperature
  • 1 1/4 cups full fat egg nog, see note, room temperature
  • 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

For the crumb topping:

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
  • 6 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • Confectioner's sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with muffin wrappers.
  2. Make the muffins. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the room temperature eggs, egg nog (milk, if you're using it, see notes) and slightly cooled melted butter. The butter should not be hot, but not so cool that it's starting to solidify again.
  4. Pour the egg nog mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until combined and no floury spots remain. Don't overmix or you'll end up with a tough muffin. Scoop batter into muffin cups. You'll use about 1/4 cup per muffin.
  5. Make the crumb topping. Whisk together flour, brown sugar, white sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
  6. Cut cold butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or two knives until your mixture forms small crumbs. Use your hands to squeeze the mixture together, mixing and squeezing until it forms a ball. This will take a couple of minutes. The warmth of your hands will help the butter work into the flour.
  7. Break the ball into various sized "crumbs" and distribute evenly across all of the muffins.
  8. Bake at 425 degrees F for 5 minutes, then turn the temperature down, without opening the oven, to 375 degrees F and continue to cook for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar, if desired.
  9. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes

*Be careful not to overbake your muffins or they will be dry. Always check for doneness at the earliest possible time frame.

*My egg nog was really thick, thicker than heavy cream. Yours may be thinner. You just need 1 1/4 cups total liquid. I used 1/2 cup eggnog to 3/4 cup milk to thin mine out. You can use whatever ratio works for you. If your eggnog is on the thinner side, use just egg nog without any milk.

*The crumb topping makes a TON of crumbs. They will all fit on top of the muffin, but if you want less crumbs, just cut the recipe in half. I promise you'll still have plenty to cover all 12 muffins.

*You can substitute a 6 Tablespoons of oil for the melted butter in the muffin if you'd prefer. I like baking with a light olive oil, but you can use a vegetable oil or other oil.

*You can microwave your eggnog briefly to help bring it to room temperature. Don't let it boil or cook, just make sure it's not cold or even cool anymore.

*Store in a covered container at room temperature for up to 2 days or freeze for longer storage.

The Merchant Baker Copyright © 2016

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