Peach Crumb Muffins
Sometimes I need an easy button. I need some magic dust, a genie in a lamp, or a fairy godmother to make life easier. There’s not enough hours in the day to constantly complicate it with dead-end tasks and lengthy processes. Sometimes I need something quick, entirely satisfying, no-fail, and EASY. Introducing: peach crumb muffins.
Peach Crumb Muffins
These peach crumb muffins are a cinch- a 2 step recipe, requiring less than 15 minutes of prep work that provides days worth of summery sweet goodness to enjoy. These peach crumb muffins are the answer to “What’s for breakfast? What can I bring for the beach weekend? “What treat can I bake with my kids?” and just about every other question that is coming to my mind right now. They’re simple and good. End of story.
Creating the Perfect Muffin
My goal with these peach crumb muffin was to make a soft, buttery, and moist muffin that was golden on the outside and full of chunky bits of ripe peaches. I also wanted to make sure it had a beautiful round dome to rest all that delicious crumble on top of.
So like any self-respecting blogger, I enlisted the help of my two best friends: other bloggers and the internet. My friend Laura pointed me to a brilliant recipe that enlisted a sweet and salty brown sugar crumble to add some color and dimension to the muffins. I also learned from a hefty amount of research (high fives to my fellow food nerds!) that if you fill the muffin tins up to the tippy top and bake at a high temperature for the first portion of the bake, you can achieve that rounded muffin dome that I was looking for. I kept the batter for these peach crumb muffins pretty thick and sure enough, after a few test batches, we had a moist, domed muffin with bits of sweet summer fruit throughout. I was in heaven.
The muffins are still not as golden brown as I had hoped they would be. I think that with some modifications in the type of sugar and length of baking, I could have achieved more of what I wanted, but my primary concern was to keep the peach crumb muffins ultra moist. So I gave up on that hope. Still, the muffins turned out beautiful with bits of crumble sprinkled on top and the drippy glaze cascading down the sides. I mean, DROOL. 
Making the Muffins
To get started, move an oven rack to the upper third of the oven and preheat to a sweltering 400 degrees. Baking our muffins on the top rack will keep the bottoms from burning before we get a little tan up top first. Next, we make our crumble. This is is nothing more than stirring a few tablespoons of melted butter with some dry ingredients. SO EASY. Set aside the crumble while you stir up the muffins.
Add some sugar to the melted butter and then toss in a few eggs and some vanilla. We also add lemon zest because even though we’re making basic muffins we’re also kinda fancy, ok? Toss in the dry ingredients alternating with some room temperature milk, and finish it all off by folding in some itty bitty peach bits. You can even use frozen fruits if you want, but local friends, I’m sure you’ve already stocked up on the good stuff from Chilton County and The Peach Truck, AMIRITE? Line your muffin pan with paper liners and fill it up just below the rim of the liner. Yes, I know everything in you is saying “DON’T FILL IT UP MORE THAN 2/3 FULL!! IT WILL OVERFLOW!” I hear you, I get it, but let’s just try it, okay? If that oven is hot enough, this trick will work. Scouts honor.
Tips for Baking
Divide all that delicious crumble between the 12 muffins and then send the whole pan to the sauna. Once they’re in the oven, close the door and decrease the heat to 375. We’ll bake at this temp for a few minutes, before letting them finish at a slightly lower degree. That initial hot bake is just long enough to set the edges of the muffin so that the insides and center can keep baking up, up, UP! If you know that you oven bakes a little cold, you can bump up the heat by 5 or 10 degrees.
Once the muffins are finished, they are moist, incredibly fragrant, and altogether perfect. That salty crumble tastes oh so good with the super sweet muffin, and each bite is speckled with a juicy burst of fruit. Another bonus is that these peach crumb muffins are super adaptable! Add a teaspoon of cinnamon, substitute fresh berries or nectarines, or top the whole thing with sweet sugared nuts. Just do how you do and enjoy the outcome.
I’m sharing today’s recipe for peach crumb muffins with a load of other bloggers who had a few too many peaches on hand. If you’re really into peach recipes, please check out #summerlovespeaches for some more inspiration. Many thanks to Annie, Ruth and Rebecca for hosting this gathering! Have a terrific weekend and tune in next week for more summer knockouts. Cheers!
If you like these peach crumb muffins, you should try:
Peach Crumb Muffins
These peach crumb muffins are fluffy, moist, and domed muffins with a streusel crumb topping, a drizzled glaze, and juicy bits of fresh peaches!
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 40
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12
- Category: Muffins
Ingredients
For the streusel:
- 2/3 cup (85 gm) flour
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1–1/2 tablespoons sugar
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of salt
- ¼ cup (55 gm) unsalted butter, melted
For the muffin:
- 1/2 cup (110 gm) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1–1/4 cup (250 gm) sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 cups (260 gm) flour
- 2–1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (120 mL) milk, room temperature
- 2 cups (280 gm) small diced peaches
For the glaze (optional):
- 1/2 cup (60 gm) confectioner’s sugar
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 1–1/2 teaspoons of milk
Instructions
To make the streusel:
- Combine the flour, brown sugar, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Stir in the butter until clumps form. Set aside while you make your muffins.
To make the muffins:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and move one rack to the upper third of the oven, leaving enough room for the muffin pan up top. Line a 12 compartment muffin tin with liners and set aside.
- In a large bowl, stir the butter and sugar until well combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring after each addition. Add the vanilla and lemon zest, stirring until combined.
- In a separate, smaller bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture, stirring until combined. Add the milk, stir, and then add the remaining dry ingredients. Stir to combine. Fold in the peaches, being careful to not overwork the batter.
- Divide the muffin batter amongst the 12 muffin liners. Depending on your liners, you may have a hair too much batter. Just fill as much as you feel comfortable- they will be FULL. Don’t worry! Divide the streusel among the 12 muffins, sprinkling on top.
- Put the muffin pan on the top rack and immediately decrease the heat to 375. Bake at this temperature for 10 minutes, then decrease the heat to 350 and bake for an additional 22-25 minutes, or until the muffins are set and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The muffins should be starting to bronze around the edges. Allow to cool slightly before topping with the glaze.
To make the glaze:
- Whisk together all three ingredients. Drizzle over top of slightly cooled muffins.
Notes
If you know your oven cooks a bit cool, increase the heat by 5-10 degrees for the initial bake. You want to keep the pan from overflowing.
