Jam Filled Muffins

You might have figured out by now that we're big fans of muffins that are filled with all sorts of deliciousness.  Remember our Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins, and our Peanut Butter Chocolate Muffins (well...cupcakes)?  

Here's another glorious filled muffin - this one is perfect to help celebrate warmer weather. It is tender and vanilla scented (real vanilla beans are so great in this recipe), filled with jam, and topped with sweet nutty streusel.  I've been serving this at brunches with great success!

An aside: don't be intimidated by filled muffins.  They are SO easy. Instead of adding all the muffin batter at once, you just spoon in a little bit of batter to start, top with a dollop of jam, and then cover all that up with the rest of the batter. The worst thing that's ever happened to me is a jam swirl in the center, rather than a perfect jam middle.  And guess what - the jam swirl is delicious too.  It's a win win.

Here's my recipe.  I recommend using a fruit-forward jammy preserve that you love.  We are big fans of Modern Gingham (made in Denver with local organic fruit and so so good!) but we've had success with all sorts of jams.  Enjoy!

Jam Filled Muffins

• 3/4 cup milk

• 1/3 oil

• 2 eggs

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 real vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

• 2 cups flour

• 1 Tbsp baking powder

• 1/2 cup fruit jam

Streusel Topping

• 1/3 cup brown sugar

• 1/3 cup sliced or chopped almonds

• 3 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 400 and line a muffin tin with paper cups.

First make the streusel. In a small bowl, combine almonds, brown sugar and 3 tablespoons butter. Using your fingers, work the butter into the sugar and almonds until blended. Pop into fridge to chill as you complete the remaining steps.

Next, combine the wet ingredients (milk, oil, and eggs) in a large mixing bowl. Add salt, sugar, and vanilla. Stir well to combine.  Lastly, add the dry ingredients (flour and baking powder) and stir until the batter is smooth and uniform.

Spoon about a Tbsp of batter into the bottom of each muffin cup. This batter isn't too stiff so it usually smooths out easily over the bottoms of the cups.  Next add about a Tbsp of jam on top of the batter.  Lastly, top with the remaining batter. I try to use less batter on the bottom than on the top - that seems to make these come out more nicely.

Sprinkle each muffin with the streusel topping.  Bake at 400 for 25 minutes.