Coffee cake muffins will impress any houseguest! My perfected version has rich and moist vanilla-flavored crumb and a hefty crown of spiced, buttery streusel. Great with a cup of coffee! Recipe includes a how-to video!
Coffee Cake in Muffin Form
Coffee cake muffins have everything there is to love about coffee cake (do you see that hefty pile of crumbly, spiced streusel?), but they bake up in half the time. Essentially the handheld version of my sour cream coffee cake, these are absolutely perfect for serving to houseguests or as an afternoon pick-me-up (with or without a cup of coffee).
Why This Recipe WORKS
Adjusted to perfection: I’ve tweaked and adjusted this recipe several times over the years, and this most recent iteration is my absolute favorite! I’ve added more brown sugar and cinnamon for depth of flavor AND more fat to help the muffins maintain their moisture longer. I also reduced the streusel amount just a bit after some complaints of too much streusel (as if there’s such a thing!).
The easiest streusel (and plenty of it!). While many streusel recipes start with cold butter, mine begins with melted butter. It’s much easier and there’s no pastry cutter needed.
Two tricks for fluffy texture and tall rise: rest the batter before baking and use two oven temperatures. I do this with quite a few of my muffin recipes now, and the results speak for themselves. If you want bakery-style muffins, this is the recipe for you!
Ingredients
Before we get started with the recipe, I want to highlight a few of the key ingredients that really make these coffee cake muffins shine ✨
Cornstarch. A small amount of cornstarch replaces part of the flour to help lower the overall protein content. Thhis helps make the muffins (and other baked goods) soft and tender. This is a technique I use in many of my recipes, from cakes to my best chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Oil & butter. I’ve recently adjusted this recipe and increased the amounts of both fats to up the moisture level in the muffins. This helps them stay tender and moist longer (but it won’t make them greasy or heavy!). A balance of both oil and butter (rather than just one or the other) gives us the perfect balance of moisture in the crumb (from the oil) and rich flavor (from the butter).
Sour cream. Just like in my blueberry muffin recipe, I now prefer to use sour cream rather than buttermilk; it adds an moisture and depth of depth of flavor (without making the muffins taste like sour cream). Plain, full-fat Greek yogurt would also work, but sour cream has the edge in terms of flavor.
Vanilla. We’re using plenty of vanilla here for classic cinnamon coffee cake flavor. If you’d like to make your glaze a vanilla glaze, you can add ⅛ teaspoon of vanilla extract. Just be careful not to add too much, or you could make it too sweet.
Cinnamon. I’ve recently increased the amount of cinnamon in this recipe to make the muffins taste even more like coffee cake.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
SAM’S TIP: Room temperature ingredients will make the smoothest batter, so try to bring your eggs and sour cream out of the fridge ahead of time if you can.
How to Make Coffee Cake Muffins
Step 1: Prep & rest the batter. Stir together the dry ingredients and sugars in a large bowl, then whisk together the wet ingredients in a large measuring cup or separate bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, then gently fold everything together until combined. The batter will be thick! Cover and let the batter rest while you preheat your oven and prep the streusel.
Step 2: Make the streusel. Melt the butter, then set it aside to cool a bit while you whisk together your remaining ingredients. Once it’s no longer hot, use a fork to toss the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs (like in the photo above). Don’t overwork it or you’ll end up with a paste rather than a crumble.
Step 3: Portion the batter. When your batter has rested and your oven is preheated, you’re ready to go! Note, the batter will be VERY thick at this point; I use an ice cream scoop for clean and even scooping, but two spoons will work too.
Step 4: Add the streusel. Grab a handful of streusel and sprinkle/press it over each muffin. It will seem like a lot; try to make sure you pile it on the actual muffins and not on the edges of your pan.
Step 5: Bake. Bake for 8 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature (don’t open the door!) and bake for another 12-14 minutes or until the muffins pass the toothpick test. Let them cool in the pan for a few minutes before carefully removing to a cooling rack.
Step 6: Add the glaze (optional). Whisk together the glaze, then drizzle overtop; I recommend letting your muffins cool for a little bit before doing this, otherwise it will melt off.
SAM’S TIP: Let the glaze solidify before you dig in; it weirdly tastes too sweet if enjoyed while it’s still wet.
Frequently Asked Questions
I often get a lot of questions about the coffee when I share coffee cake recipes (like my coffee cake cookies!). Coffee cake is typically just a treat that’s served as a nice complement to your coffee, not one that’s made with coffee. Coffee cake and coffee-cake-inspired baked goods never actually taste like coffee.
This is intentional! A thicker batter creates a thicker, taller, fluffier muffin and we lean into this even more by resting the batter. After resting, you’ll notice it’s even thicker (I also do this with my buttermilk pancake recipe and it makes them SO thick and fluffy)!
More Recipes for Streusel Lovers
If you love streusel-topped muffins, try my pumpkin muffins, apple muffins, or banana muffins next!
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜
Coffee Cake Muffins
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Servings: 12 muffins
Calories: 449kcal
Instructions
Prepare the muffin batter
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, cornstarch, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
1 ¾ cups (220 g) all-purpose flour, ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar, ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar, 2 Tablespoons cornstarch, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¾ teaspoon table salt
In a separate medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter and oil until smooth. Whisk in egg and vanilla extract followed by sour cream. Whisk until smooth and well combined.
⅓ cup (75 g) unsalted butter, ⅓ cup (80 ml) neutral cooking oil, 1 large egg, 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 cup (240 g) sour cream
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and use a spatula to gently fold together until just combined, no flour streaks remain. Set batter aside while you prepare the streusel topping.
Preheat the oven. Preheat your oven to 425F (220C) and line a 12-count muffin tin with paper liners, set aside. For best results, the coffee cake muffin batter should be allowed to rest in the bowl for at least 15-30 minutes. Prepare your streusel and let the oven preheat during this time.
Prepare the streusel
Cut butter in pieces and melt. Set aside to cool slightly.
5 Tablespoons (70 g) unsalted butter
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, cinnamon, and salt.
1 cup (125 g) all-purpose flour, ⅓ cup (66 g) light brown sugar, ⅓ cup (66 g) granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon table salt
Feel the bottom of the bowl your butter is in, it should not feel warm to the touch. Drizzle this over the dry ingredients and use a fork to claw the ingredients together until you have a crumbly streusel (do not stir or you’ll turn it into a paste, just toss/claw with a fork so you have a mixture of large and small clumps).
Assemble and bake
Once batter has rested for at least 15-30 minutes, evenly divide the batter into prepared muffin tin. Divide the streusel evenly over the muffin batter.
Transfer to center rack of 425F (220C) preheated oven and bake for 8 minutes. Once the 8 minutes has passed, do not open the oven door but turn the oven temperature down to 350F (175C) and continue to bake an additional 12-14 minutes until tops are beginning to turn a light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
Allow muffins to cool in the tin for 7-10 minutes before carefully removing to a cooling rack to cool completely (if left in the tin for too long the bottoms could get greasy).
Glaze: If desired, whisk together powdered sugar and milk until mixture is smooth and ribbons off the whisk. Drizzle glaze evenly over muffins (you can do this while the muffins are still warm). Allow to set before serving.
1 cup (125 g) powdered sugar, 2-3 Tablespoons whole milk
Notes
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. The muffins can also be frozen. Cool completely, wrap individually in plastic, and place in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Serving: 1muffin | Calories: 449kcal | Carbohydrates: 63g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 311mg | Potassium: 89mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 39g | Vitamin A: 448IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 97mg | Iron: 2mg
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
This recipe was originally published in April of 2018. I’ve since (in 2026) updated it to improve the flavor and texture. If you’re looking for it, you can find the original recipe here.
