If you follow my Facebook page, you know that I had a pretty rough week last week.  Among other things, my husband and I have been planning a trip to Mexico for ages to celebrate several events…his birthday, our five year wedding anniversary (18 months late, but who’s counting?) and most importantly, 20 years together.  We’ve been together since we were in junior high, so this is really quite the milestone for us. 

Well, a VERY long story short, we were turned away at the check-in counter at the airport because a Passport Card is not valid for air travel to Mexico, just land and sea travel.  When I applied to renew my passport, the clerk at the post-office suggested I get the card instead of the book because it worked for travel to Mexico and Canada, and it was about a hundred bucks cheaper.  Ugh.  

So, we made the depressing drive back home from the airport, licked our wounds, spent the day eating, sleeping and putting on happy faces for the girls, and are finally able to laugh about it.  Well, laugh probably isn’t the right word.  We’ve rescheduled and will hopefully be on our way to the beach in six short weeks.

Sigh.

In the meantime, I have a lot of baking coming up with several birthdays, parties, showers and even a holiday or two, so I have plenty to keep me busy.  Last night at 9:00pm, the urge to bake hit me out of nowhere so I grabbed my Williams Sonoma “Muffins” cookbook and decided to whip these up for breakfast today.  I’m so glad I did, because these are (almost) good enough to bring me out of my ruined-vacation funk. 

The muffin is not too sweet, but the filling and the topping are just rich enough to make it a perfect pairing.  We warmed ours in the microwave for a few seconds and at them with a little pat of butter – heavenly.  I think these would be awesome with a peach filling, too – or even with no filling at all. 

Remember that this batter is very thick, so don’t over stir it trying to thin it out.  If you like sweet muffins, you might want to double the sugar and add 1/4 cup of milk to the mixture.   Store them in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Hope you enjoy this one!
Streusel Ingredients:
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut

In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar and flour.  Using a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is pea sized or smaller.  Stir in the coconut, set aside.

Muffin Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup melted butter
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup half and half or milk (I used half whipping cream, half milk)

Optional:
16 oz jarred or canned pitted sour red pie cherries, drained and dried on paper towels (or other fruit of your choice)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a standard 12-cup muffin tins with cooking spray or butter.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder with a whisk.  Form a well in the center of the flour mixture, set aside.

In another bowl, whisk eggs until lightly beaten.  Add melted butter, eggs and half and half.  Add wet ingredient mixture into dry ingredients and beat until thick and creamy.  Batter will be lumpy, do not over mix. 

Fill each muffin cup 1/2 full, using an ice cream scoop.  If you opted to fill the muffins with fruit, drop a few cherries over the mixture.  Then fill the cups to the top by equally distributing the remaining batter and drop a couple of cherries onto the top of the batter.  Sprinkle a heaping tablespoon of streusel mixture over each muffin.

Bake until golden brown, springy and dry in the middle, about 20-25 minutes.  (Mine took exactly 20 minutes.)  Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer muffins to a wire rack.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Williams Sonoma Muffins