Chai Tea Muffins with Chai Streusel

Both coffee and tea pair very well with freshly baked, homemade muffins, but they don’t usually make their way into the muffins themselves. Coffee cake and coffee cake muffins, for instance, are not coffee flavored – they are just meant to pair with coffee. Coffee and tea can both be fantastic flavors for baked goods, muffins included, and you’ll get plenty of tea in these Chai Tea Muffins with Chai Streusel.

The muffins are made with strong chai tea, which gives them a black tea and spice flavor. I recommend brewing double or triple strenght chai tea for this recipe so that you get as much tea flavor as possible. That being said, the muffins are also packed with chai spices, like cinnamon, allspice, ginger and cardamom to ensure that you get a well-rounded chai flavor in every bite. They’re moist, tender and topped off with a spiced streusel topping that adds a nice buttery crunch, as well as a little extra spice.

As you might expect, these pair extremely well with a cup of hot chai tea or with a chai tea latte, but they also pair well with a regular cup of coffee.

Chai Tea Muffins with Chai Streusel
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2/3 cup double strength chai black tea, cooled

Chai Streusel
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 cup butter, chilled

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
Make the muffin batter: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and ground spices.
In a medium bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, egg, vanilla and almond extracts, and black tea until well-combined. Pour into dry ingredients and whisk until batter comes together and no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Divide evenly into prepared muffin tin.
Make the streusel: In a small bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, salt and spices. Cut butter into small pieces and add to flour mixture, tossing to coat the butter with the dry ingredients. Rub the butter in with your fingertips until mixture is coarse and resembles wet sand.
Squeeze the mixture in your fist to form large crumbles. Sprinkle evenly over the tops of the muffin batter.
Bake for 17-20 minutes, until muffins spring back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 12.