Cardamom Coffee Cake Muffins are deliciously moist muffins inspired by the famous Moosewood Cookbook Cardamom Coffee Cake!
the fabulous Cardamom Coffee Cake inspired these muffins!
It’s from the original Moosewood Cookbook, written by Mollie Katzen in 1977. The hand lettering and hand drawn illustrations make it seem downright quaint next to today’s flashy publications, but the humble collection of vegetarian recipes became one of the top ten best selling cookbooks of all time and was one of the first cookbooks I ever owned. The other day while I was trying to think of something to make for breakfast, a little light bulb went off in my head…why not halve the recipe and make cardamom coffee cake muffins?!
cardamom is the defining ingredient in this recipe
The aromatic taste of cardamom lingers on the taste buds and that little layer of streusel explodes with flavor when you bite into it. I was surprised to read that cardamom, which is native to India, is the third most expensive spice in the world, following saffron and vanilla. You can grind it fresh from the pods or buy it already ground. I’ve used it in both sweet and savory dishes and it’s a regular ingredient in Indian, Middle Eastern, and Nordic cuisine, so it’s worth having around.
what you’ll need
- butter
- brown sugar
- eggs
- vanilla extract
- flour
- baking powder, baking soda, and salt
- ground cardamom
- cinnamon
- sour cream
- walnuts
Notes for baking cardamom coffee cake muffins
- This batter is thick, so when you put the first scoop into the muffin cup, be sure to gently spread it out to more or less cover the bottom of the muffin pan so the first layer of streusel doesn’t fall down and make it difficult to remove after baking. Or you can just use paper liners.
- Make sure your walnuts are finely chopped so the streusel isn’t too heavy. I used my trusty small food processor.
- Don’t be tempted to leave out the cardamom. The unique floral flavor of the cardamom is what makes these muffins stand out from the pack.
featured comment
“Cardamom has been calling to me and I am so happy I found your recipe! It was easy to follow and I like how all the ingredients are likely to be in the pantry, I was able to make it with what I had on hand. Definitely saving this new favorite recipe and making these again. I’m not ashamed to say I scarfed down three of these before bed time. Thanks for sharing!” ~ Kate
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Cardamom Coffee Cake Muffins
Equipment
- 12 cup muffin pan
- muffins liners (optional)
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 Tbs cardamom
- 1 cup sour cream or buttermilk, I used 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup buttermilk
for the streusel
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Spray a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray, or use muffin liners.
- Mix the streusel in a small bowl and set aside. Make sure your walnuts are finely chopped, and that you get the lumps of brown sugar broken down.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom in another small bowl and set aside.
- Measure out the sour cream or buttermilk, or mix the two if you are using both, and set aside.
- Cream the butter and brown sugar until fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Blend in the vanilla.
- Fold the flour into the butter mixture in thirds, alternating with the sour cream/buttermilk. Just stir enough to blend, don’t beat or over mix.
- Spoon a small scoop of batter into the bottom of 12 muffin cups. Top with a teaspoon or so of streusel mix. Scoop the remaining batter on top and then top with another teaspoon of streusel, use up all the streusel.
- Bake for about 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool for a few minutes before removing them from the pan to a rack.
Delicious muffins! I forgot to add the sour cream /buttermilk mix and they still came out fine, the cake was moist and the streusel was perfect and delicious. Definitely making again, thank you!
Hi there, these sound delicious and I can’t wait to try them. Just wondering why they called Cardamon ‘coffee cake’ muffins and there’s no coffee in them? Am I missing something?
Coffee cake is a generic term for breakfast cakes, meant to go with coffee. Some do contain coffee, but most don’t.
This was a recipe that was easy to follow and made a big batch of muffins! I had some batter left over so I used a mini pie plate to make the last big one. SO tasty and so fluffy, wayyyy better than normal muffins. I used all sour cream as I didn’t see the buttermilk on the list until I was back home from the store but I didn’t miss it. I did add a splash of milk to make sure the batter wasn’t too stiff. The streusel is amazing 😉 I SO love cardamom and this was a perfect and easy way to use the fresh seeds I just bought.
Being a cardamom perfectionist, this was easy to prep and tasted perfect.
Thanks David!
Help! What ingredients go into the streusel? Recipe just say to mix the streusel, without specifying what to use from the list of ingredients.
The streusel ingredients are in the recipe list, I just added a headline for it to make it clearer.
I am so glad I came across this ..
I love cardamom and been looking for other ways to use them ..
Hubby likes these too .. just curious..can we freeze these ?
Thanks for your time
Yes, you can definitely freeze them.
I don’t think I ever commented on these muffins and I’ve made them more than a few times now. I do believe these are my favorite muffins ever! So good with that fresh ground cardamom, And everyone that has tried them has raved about them too I’ve sent a few people to your blog for the recipe.
Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe, Sue!
Thanks Kelly, I appreciate your support so much!