Buttermilk Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

These are the BEST buttermilk cinnamon streusel muffins! They taste straight out of a bakery and look gorgeous with their domed tops, crumbly topping, and icing drizzled over top. You’ll love how easy they are, and even though there are several different elements you have to make—batter, cinnamon swirl, crumble topping, icing—they’re not complicated and only take a minute or two each.

With the crunchy crumbly muffin top, cinnamon swirl, it’s like coffee cake in muffin form! These buttermilk cinnamon muffins are perfect for brunch, tea time, a snack, or even dessert. You’ll enjoy these no matter what the season it.

Ingredient Notes

• Sugar. White, granulated sugar goes into the base of this muffin to keep the muffin from getting too dense.
• Buttermilk. Buttermilk makes these tender and adds acidity, giving a good rise from the baking soda. See our section below for substitutes.
• Eggs. Eggs act as a binder. We used large eggs.
• Oil. Oil adds moisture to the muffins, use a neutral flavored oil like vegetable oil or canola oil.
• Vanilla. Vanilla is added to the muffin batter and glaze to give that delicious bakery flavor.
• Cinnamon. Ground cinnamon is used in the muffin base, cinnamon swirl, and the streusel topping. We used regular cinnamon, if you use a stronger, more potent cinnamon like Saigon cinnamon, you’ll need to scale back how much you use.
• Baking Soda. Baking soda is our leavening agent and helps the muffins rise.
• Salt. Salt enhances flavors.
• Flour. We used all-purpose flour. Flour is added to the muffin base and to the cinnamon streusel.
• Brown Sugar. Light brown sugar is used in the cinnamon swirl and streusel topping.
• Butter. Cold butter is used in the streusel. You can use salted or unsalted butter.
• Oats. Old fashioned oats are added to the streusel, do not use quick or steel cut oats. You can omit the oats if you prefer.
• Powdered Sugar. Powdered sugar is used to make a simple glaze for icing the cinnamons streusel muffins with.
• Milk. You can use milk, water, or buttermilk (buttermilk will add a tangy flavor) to thin out the icing.

How to Make this Recipe

1. Make Cinnamon Swirl Filling. Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon until totally combined and set aside until ready to use.
2. Make Cinnamon Streusel. Cut the butter into the brown sugar and flour using your hand or two knives. Do this until you have little broken up chunks of butter. Then add in the oats, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Mix again until everything is fully combined. The mixture should look craggy and chunky.

3. Whisk Dry Ingredients. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together your muffin base dry ingredients—flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda.
4. Whisk Wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and white sugar until smooth.

5. Mix. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk together until smooth.

6. Layer in Muffin Paper. Line your muffin pan with paper liners. Place 1-1 ½ tablespoons of batter in the bottom of each muffin paper. Generously sprinkle the cinnamon swirl mixture over top of the batter (picture 6a). Add more batter on top of the cinnamon swirl, then top off with the streusel (picture 6b). 
7. Bake. Place in oven preheated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 17-20 minutes.

8. Ice them. While the muffins are baking, whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk (or water) to make a simple vanilla glaze. Let the muffins cool for at least 10 minutes before drizzling the icing over top of the buttermilk muffins.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Expert Tips

• Measure flour correctly. Too much flour is a sure way to make these buttermilk cinnamon muffins dry and dense. Stir up your flour (it compacts as it sits) and then spoon and level it. If you have a food scale, I recommend weighing it out. See our guide on how to measure flour if you need help.
• Use cold butter. Using cold butter is essential for a crunchy, crumbly, streusel topping. Cold butter keeps the streusel topping in its crumbly formation while it bakes. I recommend you place the streusel in the fridge or freezer while you make the muffin batter until you are ready to use it.
• Don’t over bake. Over baking your buttermilk cinnamon streusel muffins can lead to burned or dry muffins. I always start baking them for less time and add time as needed. To check the muffins are done, you can insert a toothpick into the center, you should have a few moist crumbs stuck to it, but not batter.

Buttermilk and Buttermilk Substitutes

What is Buttermilk?

Buttermilk is a fermented dairy product that results from churning cream into butter. However, now, commercially produced buttermilk undergoes pasteurization, homogenization, and culturing. Buttermilk’s signature tang comes from the lactic acid in it.

How Does Buttermilk Affect Muffins?

When used in baking, buttermilk's acidity adds a subtle tangy taste to muffins while keeping them moist and tender. The interaction between the baking soda and buttermilk's acidity also contributes to the muffin’s rise. Buttermilk's lactic acid also helps break down gluten in flour, resulting in a delicate, fluffy, and soft crumb texture.

Buttermilk Substitutes

While there's no substitute for real buttermilk, here are three buttermilk substitutes that can be used in a pinch.

How to make buttermilk substitute for 1 cup of buttermilk:

• 1 cup milk  + 1 tablespoon Lemon juice or white vinegar—let mixture stand for 10 minutes
• ¾ cup plain yogurt + ¼ cup water
• ⅔ cup plain Greek yogurt + ⅓ cup water

Pro Tip: After trying out all these different substitutes over the years, I believe that Greek yogurt + water is the best buttermilk substitute and is the closest to real buttermilk.

Variations of this Recipe

There are lots of fun variations of this recipe you can try! Try swapping the cinnamon for pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice, or chai spice. Add finely chopped apple into the batter and swap the cinnamon for apple pie spice for an apple crumble muffin. Or if you want a more traditional coffee cake flavored muffin, omit the cinnamon in the muffin batter for a vanilla muffin base.

You can swirl sweetened cream cheese into the muffin batter before adding the streusel topping, or try adding some chopped nuts (like walnuts, pecans, or almonds) into the streusel.

You can also change the size or shape of this recipe. Turn these buttermilk cinnamon muffins into mini muffins (reduce the bake time) or turn this into a coffee cake! For a coffee cake, bake it in an 8x8-inch pan and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, start by baking it for 35 minutes and then add more time as needed.

Storage Tips

Room Temperature

These buttermilk cinnamon muffins can be stored at room temperature, but are best eaten within 3 days of making. Once they are completely cool, keep them tightly covered to prevent them from drying out. If you cover them before they are cool the muffins will end up soggy.

Freezer

These muffins freeze perfectly! Cool the cinnamon streusel muffins completely and then place in an airtight bag or container before freezing. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw to room temperature before eating. If you like a warm muffin, pop it into the microwave for 10-20 seconds.

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