Brown Sugar Cinnamon Muffins with Pecan Filling #MuffinMonday

I’ve got another special one for you this week!  And it smells just like Christmas.

The original recipe for this Muffin Monday was a delightful one that called for rolling the batter in cinnamon sugar like a snickerdoodle.  But it also sounded much more like making cake batter than muffins, with its creaming the butter and adding the eggs one at a time, then adding the flour and sour cream in alternating steps.  Not that it was too complicated, but muffins, for me, should require that I dirty only two bowls:  One for dry ingredients and one for the wet ones.  And certainly should not involve my beloved Kenwood mixer.

So I adapted the recipe to fit the appropriate muffin pattern:  Mix dry.  Mix wet.  Add wet to dry.  But since we are still in the holiday series of Muffin Monday, I couldn’t leave it at that!  So I dirtied another bowl for you, good people, and made some pecan filling as well.  Because I love you.  And, because Christmas is coming, I made some cinnamon sugar for the topping in snickerdoodle fashion.  Yes, we are really pushing the boat out in the lead up to Christmas!

These would be great on Christmas morning.  Your components can be made ahead of time and mixed together in the morning while your oven preheats.  (Just put the eggs/milk/sour cream mixture in the refrigerator overnight and substitute canola oil for the butter.)  Overachievers can even prepare the muffin tin ahead of time.  You know who you are!

Ingredients
For the muffin batter:
2 cups or 250g all purpose flour
3/4 cup or 170g dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
1/2 cup or 120ml sour cream
1/2 cup or 115g unsalted butter, melted and cooled or canola or other light oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs

For the pecan cinnamon filling:
1 rounded 1/4 cup or 35g plain flour
1 rounded tablespoon or 15g soft unsalted butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt (a good pinch)
1/2 cup or 75g pecans
1/2 cup or 60ml Karo or golden syrup (I used clear Karo.)

For the topping:
3 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
12 pecan halves

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease your 12-cup muffin pan or line with muffin papers.

Chop the pecans for your filling finely, either by hand or in a food processor.

The food processor is soooo much easier.  

Mix them in a bowl with the rest of the filling ingredients.  This will end up quite a sturdy paste.  Set aside.

In a large bowl mix together your flour, dark brown sugar, baking powder, salt and then grate in your nutmeg.

In a smaller bowl, whisk your milk, sour cream, vanilla, melted butter or oil and eggs.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Using a scoop or a tablespoon, put about two tablespoons of batter into each prepared muffin cup.

Evenly distribute the pecan filling among the muffin cups.  Gently press it down into the batter.

Top with the remaining batter.

Put one pecan half on the top of the batter in each cup, gently pressing it down as well.

Mix three tablespoons of sugar with one teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkle liberally over all of the muffin cups.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Remove the muffins from the muffin pan and cool further on a rack.

Enjoy!