Peach Streusel Muffins

So, I really love these muffins. I guess I should add an 'also' to the end of that sentence, because if you go back to the early days of this blog you'll see that I kinda have a muffin obsession. But this one is a different sort of love. It's not a chocolate love like in my Banana Chocolate Chip muffins, or a lemon love like in my Lemon Macaroon muffins, or even a nutella love like in my Nutella Bran muffins. No, this recipe is a versatility love and it also feeds the perfectionist in me because they always seem to work, whatever you throw at them (or in them). For example, I substituted out the required two cups peaches called for and instead added in two cups worth of any of these combinations:

~Cherry Blueberry

~Pear

~Carrot Blueberry

~Cherry

~Apple Nutmeg

The possibilities really are endless. I know my favourites were the peach (the original recipe called for peach), the apple nutmeg (tasted like a great apple pie), and the carrot blueberry. Isn't this just amazing? I mean, how many fruit muffins can you make into a carrot muffin by just throwing in carrot and having it work? I definitely am incredibly grateful I came across this recipe. And the fact that it has a streusel on top just makes it even better.

One thing I would recommend is that you use paper muffin liners for this recipe. Due to the amount of fruit and moisture in the batter (and then the crispy and hard topping), it is very very difficult to get these muffins out of the tins in one piece. And by very hard I mean impossible. Let me put it this way, you've been warned. Other than that I have yet to find anything you can really do wrong with this recipe. One other small hint though for aesthetic purposes is if you want the muffins to not be slightly sunken in the middle, make sure you have covered the entire top surface of the batter before baking with the streusel mix. Other than that it's smooth sailing. Oh, and if you are using canned peaches, it is rather difficult to check when they are fully baked. Simply because the peaches are so moist and abundant in this recipe and when you stick your toothpick in it often comes out wet. A word to the rise, these are really resilient to over baking (the top just seems to get better, and there is so much moisture in the batter), that you are better to leave it in for a couple more minutes than you think.

Recipe adapted from Best Health Magazine.

Makes 12 muffins (if making smaller muffins and thus more muffins, you'll have to increase the amount of streusel topping or you won't be able to cover each muffin completely).

Ingredients

Muffins

1 1/2 C. Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 C. Finely Chopped Pecans (omitted)

2 Tsp. Baking Powder

1 Tsp. Baking Soda

1 Tsp. Lemon Zest

1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon

1/4 Tsp. Salt

1 Egg

1 C. Sugar

1 Tsp. Vanilla

1/4 C. Butter, melted

1/2 C. Buttermilk

2 C. Peaches, diced (I've only ever used canned due to the season, but originally calls for fresh)

Streusel
1/2 C. Whole Wheat Flour
2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp. White Sugar
1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
Pinch of Salt
1/4 C. Toasted Pecans, roughly chopped (omitted)
1/4 C. Butter, melted

Directions

~Preheat oven to 400 F

Muffins

~In a medium bowl, combine flour, pecans, baking powder, soda, zest, cinnamon and salt, and set aside.

~In a large bowl, combine the egg and sugar and whisk until well combined. 

~Add in vanilla, butter, and buttermilk and whisk to combine

~Fold the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, making sure not to over mix.

~Fold the peaches into batter.

~Spoon batter into lined muffin tins.

Streusel

~In a small bowl, combine all ingredients and mix with a fork (or fingers) until you get a chunky (evenly moistened) mixture.

~Spoon mixture onto muffin batter

~Bake at 400 F for 5 minutes then lower temperature to 375 F (without opening oven door) and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes. If muffins are browning too much on top and are still soft inside, lower the temperature to 350 F and bake until the gooeyness is gone in the centre).