New York-style coffee cake crumb muffins

The red velvet bundt cake I made in honor of B's visitor was a huge hit.  It made for a delicious breakfast along with some espressos today and amped us up for a walking culinary tour of the city.  I left the boys and -- since I was nearby -- stopped at my baking store.  I had had in mind that I wanted to make these amazing sounding New York-Style Coffee Crumb Cake Muffins for a while (I even bought the cake flour and rest of the ingredients the other day), so while I was at the baking store, I picked up some mini panettone baking cups, since I thought they'd make the muffins* cuter.

* Why did I say muffins and not muffins?  Because frankly I'm pretty sure they're just mini coffee crumb cakes and not actually muffins.  But that's neither here nor there.

So this recipe?  EASY.  And taste-wise?  DELISH!  Because despite bringing them to B and his visitor for breakfast tomorrow, I had to make sure they were edible.  Clearly.  So I tasted one (just one, I was good, we were going out for dinner soon thereafter) to make sure I (a) wouldn't poison them, and (b) wouldn't ruin my new-found reputation as a great baker!

New York-Style Coffee Cake Crumb Muffins

Ingredients:

For the crumb topping:

1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 3/4 cups cake flour

For the muffin (or as I say, mini cakes):

1 1/4 cup cake flour
1/2 granulated sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened but still cool, cut into 6 1 Tbsp pieces
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup buttermilk (or 1/3 cup plain yogurt) -- I used the buttermilk, since I had leftovers in my fridge

Garnish:

Powdered sugar

Directions (adapted from the original recipe):

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Line a cupcake tin with paper cups - or if using pannettone baking cups, spray them lightly with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the granulated and brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
Pour the melted butter over the mixture and use a wooden spoon to mix them.
Add the cake flour and mix until it resembles a thick pasty dough.
Set the topping aside.

Put the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a stand mixer.
Mix with the paddle attachment, on low speed.
While on low, add the butter, 1 piece at a time.
Continue beating the mixture until it resembles moist crumbs (no visible butter chunks seen), 1-2 minutes.

Measure the buttercream in a 1-cup liquid measuring cup.
Add the egg and egg yolk, and the vanilla.
Add the liquid mixture to the dry.
Mix until all of the liquid has been incorporated and the batter is light and fluffy.
(Mine was light but not fluffy, so I increased the speed for a few minutes to make it fluffy.)

Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop 1/4 cup into each muffin tin or panettone cup.
Mine barely had enough for that, so maybe I didn't make it quite fluffy enough or maybe I didn't measure it quite perfectly.
Sprinkle the crumb topping generously onto each muffin top.
Don't press the topping down into the batter, just let is rest on top.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until crumbs are golden and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
(Mine were seriously underbaked at 20 minutes, plus an additional 30 seconds under the broiler.  This was despite having tested them with a toothpick to make sure they were done.  Of course by then they were already out of the oven, so once I realized that upon tasting a muffin, I stored them in the fridge overnight and then baked them again the following morning, for about another 20 minutes.  I have to say, they're super delicious warm out of the oven!!)

Let muffins cool in tins for 5 minutes.
Transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Muffins can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.....if they even last that long!!

When ready to serve, dust with some powdered sugar!