Peach Cobbler Muffins

In a small saucepan, brown the butter – cook and swirl it until it fizzles, froths and then the middle just barely starts to boil up a caramel color.  Pour it all – scraping out the browned bits – into a small bowl and set it aside to cool while you prep everything else.  Preheat the oven to 350 and either butter a 12-cup muffin tin, or line it with paper cups (and dice your peaches).

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, baking powder and spices and set aside.  In a second medium bowl, whisk together the egg, yolk, milk and vanilla, and then continue to whisk as you slowly add in the warm butter – continue to whisk until it’s well mixed.  Add the wet mix to the dry all at once and fold it together with a sturdy spatula until there’s no trace of flour, and then fold in the peaches.  Divide the batter evenly between your prepared cups.

Add all of the topping ingredients to a small bowl and use a pastry cutter to blend it until it’s crumbly – divide the topping evenly among the muffin tops (it’s very possible to do this tidier than I did) and then bake for about 20 minutes.  It’s difficult to tell if a top bounces back to a light touch, but I found 22 minutes in my oven to be perfect.  Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes before removing them to a rack – or eating them.