Buttermilk Spice Muffins

I recently read a blog post over at The Blest Nest. She spoke about Mimi's Restaurant. I told her I loved the buttermilk spice muffins and she told me the recipe was online. You'll find the original recipe at http://www.mimiscafe.com/RecipesSpiceMuffins.aspx. Truly these are one of my all time favorite muffins. I made them at home. They came out wonderfully. I will admit they were a tad dry the next day. Next time I may add a bit more liquid.

Fill the muffin tins 3/4 full:

Put a generous spoon of topping on:

The end result:

From the Mimi's website:

Muffin Batter:
1 cup Sugar
½ cup Butter or margarine

3 Eggs
2-½ cups Flour
2 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Nutmeg
½ tsp. Cinnamon
¾ cup + 1 tbsp. Buttermilk
Nut Topping:
½ cup Sugar
1 cup Walnuts (finely chopped)
½ tsp. Cinnamon
½ tsp. Nutmeg
Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375°. In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and the butter together with an electric mixer. When they are thoroughly mixed, add eggs and beat one more minute.
   
   
2. Sift the flour into a separate bowl, together with the baking soda, nutmeg and the cinnamon.
   
   
3. Add the flour and the buttermilk to the first mixture, mix at low speed until smooth. To avoid lumps in the batter, add the wet and dry ingredients alternately, in small amounts.
   
   
4. Make the nut topping: Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.
   
   
5. Grease muffin tins with butter or margarine. You can also use paper baking cups. Fill each cup 3/4 full of batter. Add a full, rounded tablespoon of nut topping on top of each muffin cup of batter. Bake immediately or the topping will sink to the bottom of the muffin.
   
   
6. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. A toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffin should come out dry. Home ovens heat differently from commercial ovens so you may need to adjust the temperature or the baking time accordingly.
   
   
7. Recipe yields 12 standard-size muffins, or six Mimi's-size muffins. If using the jumbo muffin pans, reduce the oven temperature by 25° and increase the baking time 5-10 minutes.

Notes: I bought chopped walnuts and then ran them through my chopper. I did use a soy free margarine. I made twelve muffins and had left over batter. I baked them the full 25 minutes.