Peaches are one of my favorite fruits! I always look forward to peach season, and this year I realized that I had never, ever made peach muffins. So I started looking for a recipe to try. I found one at  A Few Short Cuts, which I modified a little. I used canola oil instead of vegetable oil, unbleached flour instead of white flour, and used less butter in the streusel mixture because I wanted the muffins to rise a bit more. I brought them to work and my co-workers really liked them. There isn’t a super-strong peach flavor in these muffins, but no one seemed to mind that. They loved the moist texture and streusel topping. I personally felt there could have been a few more chopped peaches in each muffin, so I recommend increasing the amount of chopped peaches in the recipe from 2 cups to 2 1/2 cups–that’s what I’ll be trying next time I make these. But everything else about these tasty muffins were great! Make sure you don’t over-bake these so they won’t be dry.

PEACH STREUSEL MUFFINS by NancyC, adapted from A Few Short Cuts

Makes about 20 to 21 muffins

BATTER INGREDIENTS:

• 1  1/4 cups canola oil
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 cups unbleached flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2  to 2 1/2 cups finely chopped fresh peaches, peeled or unpeeled (or you can use drained canned peaches)
• Pecan Streusel Topping (see recipe below)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line muffin pans with 20 to 21 cupcake liners; set aside.

In large bowl, mix the canola oil, eggs, vanilla, and sugar until well blended. In medium bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

Add the flour mixture to the oil mixture and mix until all ingredients are blended together (but don’t overmix). The batter will be very thick! Fold in the peaches, stirring to distribute evenly in batter (the juicy chopped peaches will help thin out your batter a little).

Spoon batter into your prepared muffins cups, filling cups about 3/4 full, and top each muffin with about 1 Tablespoon (I used slightly less than 1 Tablespoon) of the Pecan Streusel Topping (see recipe below).

Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean (I baked mine for about 22 minutes). Let muffins cool in pan about 10 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.

PECAN STREUSEL TOPPING:

• 2/3 cup brown sugar, well-packed
• 2/3 cup unbleached flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
• 2/3 cup chopped pecans

In medium bowl, blend together the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Add in the cold butter, cutting into flour mixture with a fork until mixture is crumbly. Add in chopped pecans and blend all ingredients together. NOTE: You’ll have about 3/4 cup of streusel left over; you can save it to use on something else or, if you don’t want so much leftover streusel, you can try reducing the amounts of the ingredients to: 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup unbleached flour, 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 2 Tablespoons butter, 1/2 cup chopped pecans. That should give you just enough. I haven’t tried those smaller amounts myself yet, but they should be pretty consistent with the larger amounts.

Are you a peach fan, too? What’s your favorite peach dessert?