Soft, buttery coffee cake muffins have all the flavors and textures you love in a classic coffee cake recipe! These are sweet, vanilla-scented muffins with a warm cinnamon sugar filling, topped with a crunchy streusel and smooth cream cheese glaze.
You might also love these bakery-style apple cinnamon muffins and almond raspberry muffins.
This sweet coffee cake muffins recipe is a cozy and delicious treat begging for a spot at the breakfast table. They are soft and moist with big, tall domes crusted with a beautiful cinnamon streusel crumble. I also couldn’t resist adding a drizzle of cream cheese glaze!
These Cozy Coffee Cake Muffins Taste Just Like Coffee Cake!
- Cozy flavors. These fluffy muffins are flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, and brown sugar, just like my favorite homemade coffee cake recipes.
- Soft and moist crumb. Sour cream in the batter keeps these muffins super moist and tender, without making them taste heavy.
- Bake high, then low. Baking at a high temperature first allows the muffins to puff up and dome quickly in the oven. Afterward, they’ll finish baking at a lower temperature.
- Take them to go. These muffins pair perfectly with coffee or tea. They’re like mini, handheld coffee cakes you can easily take with you in the morning!
Ingredient Notes
These are notes on the important muffin ingredients, including tips and substitutions. Scroll down to the printable recipe card for the full list of ingredients, recipe amounts, and instructions.
- Flour – Make sure that you measure your flour correctly using the spoon and level method or a kitchen scale.
- Oil and Butter – I like to use a combination of melted butter for flavor and oil for extra-tender muffins. Choose a neutral-flavored vegetable oil, like canola oil. You can use only oil if you prefer.
- Sour Cream – Greek yogurt is a good substitute for sour cream if you need one. Bring the sour cream (or yogurt) to room temperature before you start.
- Buttermilk – If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make these muffins using a homemade buttermilk substitute instead. To make enough for this recipe, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to a 1-cup measure. Then, add enough regular milk to make 1 cup. Let the mixture rest for 5-10 minutes, stir, and it’s ready to use.
Muffin Toppings
- Crumble Topping – Make a basic streusel from melted butter, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Alternatively, you can top these muffins with an oat crumble, like you’ll find on my apple crumble pie.
- Glaze – I include a cream cheese glaze made from softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk.
Julianne’s Muffin Tips
- Leave a space between muffins. This is a trick I picked up from a blogging friend, Beth from The First Year Blog (she’s the muffin queen!) When lining the muffin pan, only line every other well, leaving an empty well in between. This way, you can fill the muffin liners right to the top, and it leaves plenty of space for the muffins to rise in the pan.
- Rest the muffin batter. Benefits to resting the batter include the thickening of the batter, which can help to retain moisture and helps the muffins to rise taller if you’re using a double-acting baking powder.
- Avoid flat muffins. Sprinkle the stresuel lightly over each muffin. Don’t press it down into the batter, or the muffins won’t dome properly.
- Keep the cinnamon sugar in the center. Drop the cinnamon sugar filling in the center of each muffin, and don’t let it spread to the edges. Otherwise, the muffins may split after they bake.
- Bake at a high temperature first. The secret to bakery-style muffins is to start the muffins at a high oven temperature (425ºF) for the first 5-6 minutes of baking. The high heat encourages the muffin batter to rise into big, bouncy domes.
How to Make Coffee Cake Muffins
After rounds of testing, these coffee cake muffins turned out better than I could have asked for. I’ll cover the steps in detail below. It starts with a batch of my favorite moist, easy muffin recipe:
- Combine the dry ingredients. First, whisk your flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl.
- Mix the wet ingredients. Meanwhile, cream the sugar with oil and melted butter. Once that’s light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time. Lastly, mix in the vanilla and sour cream.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet batter. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, about ⅓ at a time, adding the buttermilk in between each addition. The batter will be thick.
- Rest the batter. Next, cover the batter and leave it to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes. Similar to resting pancake batter, resting the muffin batter allows the flour to absorb into the batter and relaxes the gluten, for a fluffier, lighter texture and more even baking.
Next, Make the Filling and Crumble Topping
Whisk brown sugar and cinnamon together for the muffin filling. In a separate bowl, stir the melted butter with brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon (or pinch the ingredients together with your hands) to make the crumble topping.
Keep the streusel topping cold in the fridge until it’s time to assemble your muffins. Cold crumbles will hold their shape better when baked.
Assemble and Bake the Muffins
While the batter rests, preheat the oven to 425ºF and prepare two 12-cup muffin pans with 6 cupcake liners each, leaving an open well between each cup. Once the batter is rested, it’s time to grab your pans and assemble these coffee cake muffins:
- Start with the first layer. Use a medium cookie scoop or ice cream scoop to drop 1½ tablespoons of muffin batter into each lined well of your prepared muffin pans. Spread the batter right to the edge.
- Fill with the cinnamon swirl. Next, add about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar to the middle of each muffin. Top this with an additional 2 tablespoons of muffin batter.
- Add the streusel. Finally, sprinkle the top of each muffin with extra cinnamon sugar, followed by the streusel topping.
- Bake. Start the muffins baking, one pan at a time, on the middle rack at 425ºF. After 5-6 minutes, lower the oven temperature to 350ºF and continue baking for 12-13 minutes. A toothpick tester should come out clean.
- Add the glaze. Allow the muffins to cool to room temperature before you add the glaze. Whip the cream cheese, add the powdered sugar and vanilla, and then add the milk gradually until you reach a pourable, smooth consistency. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled muffins, and enjoy.
Adapt the Glaze
I purposefully made a thicker, icing-like glaze that wouldn’t run down the sides of the muffins. If you’d prefer a thinner glaze, add more milk (1 tablespoon at a time) until you have your desired consistency. On the other hand, to thicken a glaze that’s too thin, add more powdered sugar.
Feeling Creative? Try These Variations
- Apple. Try adding a teaspoon of homemade apple pie filling along with the cinnamon sugar filling, for a version inspired by apple coffee cake.
- Chocolate chips. Make chocolate chip coffee cake muffins and mix chocolate chips into the cinnamon sugar filling, or add them to the muffin batter.
- Nuts. Stir crushed pecans into the streusel topping for extra crunch. Other good options are crushed almonds or walnuts.
Storage and Freezing
- Refrigerate glazed muffins. If these coffee cake muffins are glazed, store them airtight in the fridge for up to 4 days. Serve them chilled or at room temperature.
- Room temperature. If you haven’t added the cream cheese glaze, you can keep the muffins at room temperature for up to 3 days.
- Freeze. I recommend freezing the baked and cooled muffins without the glaze. Store them in a freezer-safe container or resealable bag and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature before glazing and serving.
More Easy Muffin Recipes
Coffee Cake Muffins
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Rest Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes per batch
- Total Time: 1 hour 21 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Soft, buttery coffee cake muffins have all the flavors you love in a classic coffee cake! These are sweet vanilla muffins filled with cinnamon sugar, topped with a crunchy streusel and glaze.
Ingredients
Muffins
- 3 cups (360 grams) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 tablespoon (11.25g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup (68 grams) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup oil
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup (64 grams) sour cream, room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
Cinnamon Filling
- ¼ cup (51 grams) light brown sugar, packed
- 3 teaspoons (5 grams) cinnamon
Crumble Topping
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup (95 grams) light brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup (50 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon (9 grams) cinnamon
Cream Cheese Glaze
- 2 ounces cream cheese, softened
- ¾ cup (76 grams) powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
Muffins:
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.
- Add the sugar, oil, and melted butter in a separate large mixing bowl, and use an electric mixer to mix until light and fluffy.
- Mix in the eggs, one at a time, until they are just incorporated, then add the vanilla extract and sour cream, and mix until combined.
- Pour in about a third of the dry ingredients and mix at low speed. Then, pour in about a third of the buttermilk and continue mixing. Continue alternating the dry ingredients and buttermilk until they have been just mixed in to form a thick, wet batter. Be careful not to overmix the batter, or the crumb will be too tight and bread-like. Cover the batter with plastic wrap, and let it rest on the counter for 20 minutes.
- While the batter is resting, preheat the oven to 425°F. You want the oven to have time to heat to the correct temperature. You’ll also want to line (2) 12-cup muffin pans with 6 cupcake liners each, skipping every other cup.
Cinnamon Filling:
- In a small bowl, stir the brown sugar and cinnamon until completely mixed. Set aside.
Streusel Topping:
- Add the melted butter, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a medium bowl, and use a wooden spoon to stir until the mixture starts to clump together. Use your fingers to crumble the mixture into small pieces.
Assembly:
- Once the batter is done resting, use a medium (1½ tablespoon) cookie scoop to drop level scoops of batter into each cupcake liner. Use a small spatula to carefully push the batter to the edges of the liner.
- Spoon 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon filling into the middle of each of the muffins. Try to keep the cinnamon sugar in the middle without it spreading too far to the edge or the muffins may have a split in the middle after they bake.
- Scoop another 2 tablespoons of batter and put it on top of the cinnamon layer of each muffin. Carefully smooth it out without mixing the cinnamon sugar too much.
- Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with another 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon sugar, then sprinkle with about 1 tablespoon of streusel topping each.
- Bake the muffins, one pan at a time, on the middle rack of the oven for 5-6 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350°F and bake for another 12-13 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. Let the muffins cool for 10 minutes in the pan before transferring them to a rack to cool to room temperature.
For the Glaze:
- After the muffins have cooled, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese until smooth. Mix in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract, then gradually add the milk until the glaze is smooth.
- For a thinner glaze, add more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency.
- Drizzle the glaze over the muffins. Serve at room temperature and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Notes
Storage
- Room temperature: If you don’t put the cream cheese glaze on top, you can store the muffins in an airtight container and keep them on the counter for up to 3 days.
- Refrigerator: Store the muffins in an airtight container, and keep them in the fridge for up to 4 days. Bring to room temperature or enjoy chilled.
Baking Tips
- Be careful not to overmix the batter after the dry ingredients have been added. That will make the crumb too tight and similar to bread.
- Do not press the streusel topping on top of the muffins. That will cause the domes of the muffins to be flatter.
- The glaze is thicker to keep it from running down the sides of the muffins. For a thinner consistency, add more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency. For a thicker glaze, add more powdered sugar, one tablespoon at a time.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Muffin
- Calories: 418
- Sugar: 33.6 g
- Sodium: 210.2 mg
- Fat: 15.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 63.7 g
- Fiber: 1.7 g
- Protein: 6.5 g
- Cholesterol: 58.1 mg
