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Coffee cake muffins with crumble topping are easy and delicious. They’re topped with a crumbly, buttery streusel top overflowing as you pull them out of the oven. They’re explosions of flavor in your mouth. And the best part is you can eat them for breakfast. With coffee.

coffee cake muffin unwrapped with icing drizzled on top

One of my favorite things is how food or a single recipe can take you back to a specific moment in time or remind you of a certain person in your life. These muffins are in honor of my grandmother who made the most out of this world delicious coffee cake recipe.

We’re taking classic coffee cake and turning them into the most tender muffins. These are by far the best muffin recipe and maybe even my favorite recipe

She also inspired me to make brown butter blueberry coffee cake and these pumpkin streusel muffins. I’m also planning to make these cinnamon muffins because we had something so similar growing up.

Ingredient Notes

Here is everyhting you need to make coffee cake muffins:

coffee cake muffin ingredients
  • Cinnamon: It adds such a rich and spicy-sweet flavor to so many dishes!
  • Flour: an all purpose flour is great for this recipe, but you could also swap it for a cake flour or a 1:1 gluten free flour. I tested it using gluten free flour and they turned out great!
  • Light brown sugar
  • Melted butter: I tested these with regular butter and vegan butter and they turned out delicious both times.
  • Milk: either whole milk or a dairy free milk like almond milk! Swap this for sour cream or greek yogurt if you have that on hand for a soft muffin with a tender crumb.
  • Baking powder, baking soda and salt
  • Eggs: room temperature eggs are best because they mix into the batter easier.
  • Vanilla extract

Almost every ingredient (besides the dairy) can be found in the baking aisle when you head to the store.

How to Make Coffee Cake Muffins

step by step images showing how to make coffee cake muffins with crumb topping
  1. Make the crumb topping: combine the sugars, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in the melted butter, then add the flour and combine with a rubber spatula. Spread out mixture on a baking sheet to dry until it’s crumbly and ready to use.
  2. Combine the dry ingredients: combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
  3. Whisk in the wet ingredients: whisk together milk, melted butter, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl. You could use a hand mixer for the wet ingredients, but it’s not necessary because we’re using melted butter.
  4. Add the dry ingredients: Add the flour mixture and stir using a rubber spatula until just incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.
  5. Bake: Scoop the muffin batter into paper-lined muffin cups about 2/3 of the way full. Pile the top of the muffin high with the prepared streusel topping. Bake at 375°F for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to 350°F to finish baking. Cool slightly on a wire rack then run a butter knife around the edges to release the muffins from the muffin tin.

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The Secret to Getting Muffins to Rise Higher

Starting the oven at a higher temperature introduces hot air quickly to the muffins which helps them rise really well. After the initial rise, you can lower the temp to finish baking all the way through.

Expert Tips

Some of the biggest culprits to dry muffins are over-mixing the batter and baking the muffins too long.

  • Be sure to mix the batter JUST until it’s incorporated and not any longer.
  • All oven temps vary, so pay close attention to the muffins at the end.
  • Last but not least, if you have time to cover and chill the muffin batter for an hour (or overnight) you can do that. It results in a moister, tender muffin.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does coffee cake have coffee in it?

Although coffee is in the name, there isn’t actual coffee in it. Traditional American coffee cake is a pound cake layered with cinnamon and streusel. These are the muffin versions of those! They’re called coffee cake muffins because they’re the perfect compliment to a hot cup of coffee or a foamy latte.

Why did my muffins turn out rubbery?

This is likely from over-mixing. Once you don’t see anymore streaks in the batter and all of the ingredients are done, stop mixing.

two coffee cake muffins stacked on top of each other with icing dripping down

 If you make this recipe, I’d love for you to give it a star rating below. You can also tag me on Instagram so I can see it!

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3.92 from 212 votes

Coffee Cake Muffins

Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes
Total: 40 minutes
These coffee cake muffins with crumble topping are easy and delicious. They're topped with a crumbly, buttery streusel top overflowing as you pull them out of the oven.

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Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients

Crumb Topping

  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon McCormick Gourmet™ Organic Ground Saigon Cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (can sub vegan butter)
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (can sub 1:1 gluten free flour)

Coffee Cake Muffins

  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (can sub 1:1 gluten free flour)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup milk (can sub dairy free milk)
  • 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted (can sub vegan butter)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 large eggs

Icing

  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 2-3 teaspoons milk

Instructions 

  • Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners then spray with nonstick spray. Set aside.
  • To make the crumb topping, combine the sugars, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in melted butter then stir in the flour using a rubber spatula. Set aside while you make the muffin batter.
  • To make the muffins, in a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and set aside. This makes a lot of crumble topping. If you don't want as much crumble, I recommend cutting this recipe in half.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, melted butter, vanilla and eggs. Pour mixture over the dry ingredients and stir using a rubber spatula until just incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.
  • Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin cups until they're about 2/3 of the way full. Generously top each with the reserved crumb topping, using your fingers to gently press the crumbs into the batter to help it stay in place while baking. It will be a lot of crumb topping on each muffin.
  • Bake muffins in preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350°F degrees and bake another 10-12 minutes until set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • While the muffins are baking, make the glaze. Combine powdered sugar and milk in a medium bowl and whisk until smooth. If the glaze is too thin, add more confectioners' sugar as needed.
  • When the muffins are done, cool for 10 minutes and drizzle the glaze on each muffin using a small spoon.
Last step! If you make this, please leave a review letting us know how it was!

Notes

Storage: store leftover muffins in an air tight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Store in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight.
Dairy-free: use vegan butter or coconut oil and almond milk.
Gluten-free: use 1:1 gluten free flour (we like Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 flour blend)

Video

Equipment

  • Muffin Tin

Nutrition

Serving: 1muffin | Calories: 327kcal | Carbohydrates: 46.4g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 13.9g | Cholesterol: 65.2mg | Sodium: 246.5mg | Fiber: 1.1g | Sugar: 21.3g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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Recipe Rating




25 Comments

  1. Kait says:

    1 star
    These came out super bland. I bake all the time and followed the recipe exactly. You could barely taste the cinnamon and they weren’t very sweet. They texture was also a little off.

  2. Katherine Kochis says:

    3 stars
    My crumb topping disappeared into muffin batter while baking. What did I do wrong?

  3. Kram R says:

    5 stars
    Best muffins ever. I find buttermilk is the secret to baking, so that’s what I used here. Oh, and the second time I added frozen wild blueberries. Simple and simply amazing!

  4. Marissa Butler says:

    5 stars
    Don’t be afraid of the negative reviews, these are DELICIOUS. My husband absolutely loved them! They definitely aren’t bland or in need of more sugar. I followed the recipe exactly and they were great. If anything the topping makes them super sweet (like most coffee cake) but they are perfect with a cup of coffee. The only thing that happened to me was they looked a little deformed 10 minutes into baking. I ended up needing more like 15-17 minutes in my oven and then they rounded out and they looked prettier after I did the glaze 🙂 will make again, thank you!

  5. Kenzie says:

    5 stars
    It’s really good

  6. Kayley says:

    5 stars
    These muffins came out great! They are the perfect amount of moistness while still making you feel like you need a drink of coffee or milk with them. Also just the right amount of sweetness!! I will say that I only used about 3/4 of the crumb topping because I couldn’t fit it all on top of the muffins & I also took them out about 5 minutes earlier which I think made them more moist!

  7. Ross Burnett says:

    1 star
    Havent finished baking these yet but already cant stand the way this recipe is written. *icing* should be written as another process, not anotger bulletpoint in the ingredient list. Using weight measurements vs volume would make this so much better. Ended up with about 3 times more crumble than what can even fit in 12 muffin cups. Dont make these, find a better recipe.

    1. Molly Thompson says:

      Hi Ross, thanks for the feedback. The ample amount of crumble is purposeful, they’re supposed to be loaded high with it. We’ve tested this recipe countless times and love how much crumble is in them so that’s a personal preference. We recommend patting the crumble down into the filled muffin tins to fit more. The pictures you see in this post were done this way. We’re working on updating our baking recipes with weight measurements, but we’re a tiny team and a small business, so appreciate your patience. Finally, we updated the bullet point which was a simple mistake. Have a good one, thanks.

  8. YN says:

    1 star
    These looked delicious but lacked flavor and were not sweet, surprisingly. I would definitely add white sugar to the batter and cut the flour a lot in the crumble if I ever made them again. Trying to figure out how to give these more flavor now that they are made.

    1. Molly Thompson says:

      Surprising to hear! We just made these and they had tons of flour and we find they’re almost too sweet. We tried swapping in sour cream for thee milk and they were great. There’s a lot of sugar in these and the topping so I wouldn’t recommend adding more. You could add more cinnamon or nutmeg if you want. We’ve also made them with blueberries.

  9. Orion says:

    1 star
    DONT LISTEN TO THE RATINGS.

    They were so disappointing. I made these because I wanted something similar to the store bought ones that I grew up on. They lied to me. I was so disappointed. They lack sweetness despite the mountain of powdered sugar I put on the end (don’t like icing) and the texture was just… off. They have a weird aftertaste and honestly? The blandness and chewiness could appeal to someone but not me. They made me sad.

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