Every saturday morning I make little breads and a sweet snack for lunch. Not a speculooscake, because we eat that from monday until friday, but a lot of times I bake muffins. I blogged it earlier: I am a big fan of the book of Dorie Greenspan (cooking from my home to yours) and I use it a lot to bake the recipes and for inspiration. She gaves a big number of examples and recipes for the most delicious muffins.
When I got through the book I saw one with chocolate (and for a chocoholic like me, that's definitely one I'm going to try), but today with a lot of stormy spring weather I had a taste for something with speculoos. Speculoos is a spices which is most commonly used in December. It contains a bit of cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper and cloves, but can contain even more as I've seen many different recipes.
In the book there was a recipe with all spice. I've exchanged the all spice with speculoos.
My small kitchenprince helped me by stirring. And with his 3 years old he's a good help for the preparation of muffins, because the batter may contain lumps. He is also the first man in line to taste.
Ingredients (12 muffins):
For the topping:
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour (60 gram);
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar (110 gram);
- 1/2 teaspoon speculoos spice;
- 5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (60 gram), in small cubes.
For the muffin batter:
- 2 cups plain flour (250 gram);
- 1/2 cup sugar (100 gram);
- 1/2 teaspoon speculoos spice;
- 1 tablespoon baking powder;
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar (55 gram);
- 3/4 cup whole milk (180 ml);
- 8 tablespoons melted unsalted butter (100 gram);
- 2 large eggs;
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius).
Prepare the topping:
Mix the flour, sugar and speculoos. Add the cubes of cold butter and use your fingers to make small crumbles. Put it in the refregirator.
Prepare the batter:
Mix in a large bowl both sugars, flour, speculoos and the baking powder.
In a second bowl mix the liquid ingredients: the milk, egg, melted butter and the vanilla extract. Poor the liquid on the dry ingredients and mix fast with a wooden spoon. Clumbs aren't a problem.Divide the batter in the muffin plate. Sprinkle the topping on top and press it a little in the batter. Put it in the oven for about 20 minutes. Put the plate on a rack at room temperature for about 5 minutes. The muffins are ready to eat. Enjoy