Allspice Crumb Muffins

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Last night we had a delicious breakfast for dinner. I love doing that, do you? We do it fairly often. I love having leftover dinner/breakfast for breakfast the next morning. Yum! So I made this no-crust quiche with bacon, spinach and swiss cheese (oh my - that was a good combination. And then you get to eat yummy turkey, bacon and swiss sandwiches with your leftovers the next day if you happen to have turkey and delicious sourdough bread like I did...

...but anyway, I digress), and we had these allspice muffins, and sliced fresh peaches. It was sooo good!

So in researching allspice, I came to find out that it is an actual spice - it's a dried fruit (berry) from southern Mexico and Central America. When the English discovered it, they called it "allspice" because they thought it tasted like the combination of nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. For some reason, I always thought it was some fake thing, but no, it's real. :) However, if you don't have any around (like I didn't and I'd already gone to the store), you can substitute equal parts nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground cloves for the allspice (for example, 1/3 tsp. nutmeg, 1/3 tsp. cinnamon, 1/3 tsp. ground cloves for 1 tsp. allspice). Other than that sounding complicated, these actually are very simple and use very simple ingredients. They're definitely a sweeter muffin, not healthy, but they went great with our salty quiche. I hope you enjoy them!

Allspice Crumb Muffins

For the streusel:

1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. ground allspice

5 T. cold butter, cut into bits

For the muffins:

2 c. flour

1/2 c. sugar

1 T. baking powder

1/2 tsp. ground allspice

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 large eggs

3/4 c. milk

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

grated zest of one lemon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners (I just sprayed mine with cooking spray because I was out of liners and they came out great).

For the streusel, combine all ingredients except for the butter and stir to combine. Add the bits of butter and toss to coat, using your fingers to work the butter into the dry ingredients until you have little crumbs. Set aside in the refrigerator.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, both sugars, allspice, and salt. Make sure there are no lumps. In a glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together the butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla until well combined. Add to the dry ingredients and stir gently to combine. The batter will be somewhat lumpy. Stir in the lemon zest. Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups. Sprinkle some streusel over each muffin, pressing the crumbs into the batter gently with your fingers.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, or until the tops are browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes and then remove the muffins from the pan. Makes 12 muffins.

Source: Annie's Eats