Streusel Sour Cream Coffeecakes

These Streusel Sour Cream Coffeecakes, baked in muffin tins are moist, rich and nutty with a wonderful orange flavor from the addition of orange zest.
The recipe is from the February 2002 issue of Gourmet and it's my second contribution to the new site Gourmet Unbound . It received so many positive reviews that I just had to give it a try, and that was a month ago. I've been making these coffeecakes ever since! They're that good!

The only change I made, was to spoon some of the streusel in between the layers of batter, rather than just on top. There is plenty of streusel topping to do this. ( Actually I didn't use all the topping, as there remained a bit more than I needed.).

One last thing, if you fill the tins more than 2/3 full, the muffins will "mushroom" on top and this can make it a little tricky to get them out of the pan in one piece. Be sure to butter each tin liberally, sides and bottoms and top of the pan, too.

Struesel Sour Cream Coffeecakes ( from Gourmet February 2002)

3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup light brown sugar
2 sticks cold butter, cut into 1/2" cubes
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups pecans, toasted and chopped
1 cup sour cream
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. orange zest

Preheat oven to 350.
Liberally butter each cup of a 12 cup muffin pan, sides, bottoms and top of the pan itself.


1. Stir sugar, flour, salt and 3/4 cup of brown sugar in a medium bowl.
2. Blend in 1 1/2 sticks of the butter with your fingers to a coarse meal.
3. Transfer 3/4 cup of the mixture to another small bowl and add cinnamon, remaining 1/2 stick butter and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar. Blend with fingers to combine.
4. Stir in nuts. Chill topping 15 minutes.
5. In a small bowl, whisk sour cream, egg, egg yolk, vanilla, baking soda and orange zest.
6. Stir into remaining flour mixture til just combined. ( Batter will be stiff.).
7. Divide among the well buttered muffin cups, filling 2/3 full. (Or, fill a small amount of batter into muffin cups and sprinkle some streusel on top and spoon more batter over this).
8. Sprinkle each muffin with streusel topping, pressing it lightly into batter.
9. Place rack in middle position in oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or til toothpick comes out clean.
10. Allow muffins to cool in pan. They will come out easier once cooled totally.
* Note: I haven't yet tried using paper liners but if you do I suggest spraying each one with a butter spray.