These eggless muffins have a tender crumb and a pocket of strawberry jam baked inside. The cinnamon-oat streusel topping makes them so perfect for breakfast!
I’m not sure why, but when I wake up in the morning it takes a while for my appetite to kick in. My husband on the other hand, is ready for breakfast the moment his feet hit the floor. His preference is something sweet – waffles, pancakes, English muffins with jam or cream cheese pastries. Those recipes usually require a good amount of eggs, butter, and milk. Since we’re still carefully conserving those items, I turned to pantry staples once again – and these muffins are the result!
The vanilla muffin batter is easy enough to whip together using a hand mixer, and it contains no eggs or butter. I used some canned evaporated milk in the recipe, but if you don’t have that on hand you can replace it with water, or even oat or nut milk.
A dollop of jam is swirled into the centers of the muffins, and then each muffin is topped with a generous amount of streusel. Good streusel usually contains butter, but I used vegetable shortening which was just fine, but a little crumbly. If you have two tablespoons of butter to spare, then use that instead!
I baked these in cupcake liners, which I prefer because clean-up is much easier.
This recipe can be endlessly varied with whatever jam you have on hand. I’m eyeing a jar of fig jam in the fridge that needs to be used for a second batch of muffins. I like these best warm, but not hot. Let them cool a little after you take them out of the oven, because the jam in the center is molten and will burn your tongue (I learned the hard way!).
We really loved these, and I hope you will too!
Yields 12 muffins
Muffins
1 3/4 cup (210g) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (120ml)evaporated milk (can substitute water, oat or nut milk, or cow’s milk)
1/3 cup (80ml) vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar or cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120ml) water
6 tablespoons strawberry jam or other jam (tested with Smucker’s Seedless Strawberry Jam)
Streusel
1/3 cup (40g) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (25g) old-fashioned oats
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening (or cold butter or margarine)
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a standard cupcake pan with 12 paper liners.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt. Whisk to combine. Add the evaporated milk (or recommended substitution), oil, vinegar, and extract. Mix on low speed until thick. Add the water and mix again until the batter is smooth with a pourable consistency.
In a small bowl, stir the jam with a spoon until smooth. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin and place about 1-2 teaspoons of jam in the centers of each cup of batter. Use a skewer to swirl the jam down into the batter (turn the batter over the jam with the skewer instead of swirling it throughout the batter).
For the streusel, combine the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk to combine. Add the shortening and use a fork to mash the ingredients together until crumbles form.
Divide streusel mixture among the tops of each muffin and transfer to the oven. Bake for 20-23 minutes, or until the tops are well puffed and spring back when pressed. Or test with a toothpick – it should come out with only jam clinging to the pick, and no uncooked batter.
Let cool before serving. These are wonderful served warm, but hot-from-the-oven muffins will hold a pocket of molten jam, which will cause burns. Let them cool down before serving.
Store in an air-tight cupcake keeper, or on a platter covered with plastic wrap.
