Who was hit by the snowstorm yesterday? Or maybe you got it several days ago… or even starting today? We normally do not get much snow since we’re so close to the NYC bay. The warmer weather generally keeps snow nonexistent or very minimal. And it’s odd, too, because people ten minutes away from us will get pummeled with snow while we sit mostly dry!
But, occasionally, we do get hit pretty hard with snow, and yesterday was certainly one of those days. I think we got about 8 inches overnight? Still not as much as areas around us, but significant for us! Alas, it has also proven what we all predicted… no more snow days for the kiddos 😢. Sure enough, a “snow day” was called that required all students to attend remotely.
Now, as a parent of a teenager, I don’t necessarily give a flying fuck. I mean, what would a snow day look like for him? Running around town? Sledding with friends? Being outdoors and getting exercise??? Hell no! He’d still be stationed in front of his computer, snug and warm, playing video games all day! No pity from momma. At least his day is reasonably productive, and he won’t lose any summer holiday days.
What do moms/bloggers do on a snow day? Well, to be honest, I was a little tempted to go play video games myself! I do love a grey and miserable day… generally I prefer a good rainy day with a thunderstorm rolling through. But a snow day with HUGE snowflakes plummeting down is also a fantastic day to be completely lazy, focus on you, and do whatever it is that you want to do to treat yourself… curl up and read a book, curl up and watch a movie, curl up and play video games… generally something involving curling up, evidently.
I decided to put that on the back burner and do a little baking first. I totally feel I’ve earned time off to be lazy, but I still figured I’d put in some effort before plopping down on the couch… particularly because I took a few days off last week for some much needed “ME” time and mental health days! And what a difference those days made! Just taking the pressure off from having to go, go, go for a few days was great.
And you know what I did? Well, I mentioned some of what I did already a few days ago ~ namely, took a small corner of our last unused room to carve out a small office space for myself. But I also spent hours just checking out indoor plants to add some peace to my little area. And I think just staring at them online gave me some peace in and of itself! Go figure!
Anywho, back to baking. I have been craving two different types of muffins and decided to finally make one of the two… the second recipe is still to come, and I’m quite excited about that one too! But this one… well, something about coffeecake came to mind recently, but I didn’t want to make a full coffeecake! So the idea of making coffeecake muffins sounded perfect to me! But, it also felt kind of like a “been there, done that” type of recipe. At which point, Nutella popped into my head.
I’m going to tell you a deep, dark secret… I have never had Nutella in. my. life. NEVER. I mean, I know what Nutella is ~ chocolate and hazelnut. And to tell you another deep, dark secret… I’m just not a huge chocolate fan. I like white chocolate. I do like the occasional snickers bar if my sugar has bottomed out and I need a bit of a kick (very, very rare)… actually, when hiking across England just over a year ago now, it was peanut M&M’s that were our go to snack for an energy boost. The chocolate and sugary coating gave an almost immediate energy boost and the nuts kept it going.
Alas, I digress. So, Nutella… never really been all too interested. Love hazelnut, can skip the chocolate. But I know a lot of people LOVE Nutella, and something about chocolate AND hazelnut sounded like the perfect addition to a coffeecake… or coffeecake muffins, you know what I mean.
I decided to give the muffins a slight tang by using sour cream instead of milk, and then a blend of white and brown sugar. I poured half of the batter into the muffin pan and dropped a small dollop of Nutella into each cup. Using a chopstick, I carefully created swirls. I repeated this with a second level of batter before sprinkling over the crumble topping. SUPER easy to make, SUPER easy to come together!
These muffins are actually perfect with coffee… or a hot cuppa. Your call. My son is enjoying them either way! He likes to add a pat of butter after microwaving a muffin. And the heavenly smell with which these fill up your kitchen is worth all the effort to make them!
What do you guys think of Nutella?? Am I the only one who never had Nutella before? Let me know what you think of these muffins!
Enjoy!
Nutella Swirl Coffeecake Muffins
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
- Category: Baking
- Cuisine: Breakfast, Dessert
Ingredients
Muffin Mix
1¾ cups flour
½ cup white granulated sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ TB baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsps ground cinnamon
½ tsp kosher salt
3 large eggs
½ cup canola or vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
2 tsps vanilla extract
Nutella ~ about 2 tsps per muffin
Crumble Topping
1 cup flour
½ cup brown sugar
2 tsps ground cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
½ cup butter, softened
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, canola oil, sour cream, and vanilla extract. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and fold together with a rubber spatula until all the flour is wet and fully mixed together.
In another medium bowl, make the crumb topping by whisking together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the butter and use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut the butter into the flour mixture. Keep cutting the butter in until you have pea size pieces.
Spray a 12 cup muffin pan or two 6 cup muffin pans lightly with nonstick spray, including the top of the pan to allow muffin growth. Scoop in half of the muffin mix to each muffin cup (I used a gravy ladle). Scoop in about 1 tsp of Nutella and use a chopstick to create swirls. Scoop in the remaining muffin mix and repeat with the Nutella. Sprinkle the crumb topping over each muffin.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out cleanly when inserted.
Let cool before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store in a large, airtight container.
Enjoy!
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