Cinnamon muffins with diced peaches through them and a cobbler streusel pressed on top. Twelve muffins, thirty five minutes.

The two stage bake gives the dome

Five minutes at 425F, then reduced to 350F for fifteen to eighteen more.

This is the standard bakery technique for a high-domed muffin and it works through a burst of heat at the start. The high temperature sets the outer edge quickly while the centre is still liquid, so the batter has nowhere to go but up.

Dropping to 350F then lets the interior cook through without the outside burning.

Bake the whole time at 350F and you get a flatter muffin. Bake it all at 425F and the outside is dark before the middle sets.

Refrigerate the streusel

Made first, then chilled while you prepare the batter.

Streusel is flour, sugar and cold butter worked to pea-sized crumbles, and those crumbles depend on the butter staying solid. Left on the counter while you cream butter and beat eggs, it softens and the pieces merge into a paste.

Cold streusel holds its shape in the oven and bakes into distinct crumbs rather than a solid layer.

Split the peaches

One heaping cup folded into the batter, the rest placed on top before the streusel.

Folding all two cups in would make the batter very wet and the muffins dense. Splitting means the interior stays light while the top still shows fruit.

The pieces on top also sink slightly during baking, which distributes them without needing to be mixed in.

Press the streusel down

Sprinkled over each muffin then pressed gently so it sticks.

Streusel sitting loose on a wet batter slides off during baking and ends up on the pan. Pressed in, the top layer of batter grips it.

Gently is the qualifier. Pressing hard compresses the batter and works against the rise you set up with the high initial heat.

Fill almost to the top

Which is fuller than most muffin recipes call for.

The high heat start pushes the batter up hard, and a cup filled two thirds gives you a muffin that rises to the rim rather than over it. Filling almost to the top is what produces the overhanging bakery-style dome.

Twelve cups from this quantity means each is generously filled.

Alternate flour and milk

With the mixer on low, until everything is added and no dry flour is visible.

Adding all the milk at once to a creamed butter and egg mixture splits it. Alternating keeps enough flour present to absorb the liquid as it goes in, so the emulsion holds.

Low speed throughout. Beating hard at this stage develops gluten and gives a tough muffin.

Two minutes of creaming, then one more

Butter and sugar beaten on high for two minutes, then another minute after the eggs and vanilla.

Those three minutes are where most of the lift comes from, alongside the baking powder. Air beaten into the butter expands in the oven.

Room temperature butter and eggs. Cold butter will not aerate and cold eggs cause the creamed mixture to seize.

Salted butter in the streusel

A quarter cup, cold, and salted specifically.

The streusel has no separate salt in it, so the butter carries all of it. A sweet crumble topping without salt tastes flat against a sweet muffin.

If you only have unsalted, add a pinch.

Cool in two stages

Five minutes in the pan, then ten more on a rack before eating.

The pan time lets them firm enough to lift out without tearing. Leaving them longer traps steam and makes the bottoms damp. <p>Around 283 calories each. They keep three to four days airtight or three months frozen, wrapped individually. ## Other sizes Six jumbo muffins: 425F for 5 minutes then 350F for 21 to 24 minutes. Thirty six mini muffins: 350F throughout for 12 to 15 minutes, with no high heat stage since they are too small to need it.

Frozen peaches

They work and add 2 to 3 minutes to the baking time. Do not thaw them first; thawed peaches release a great deal of liquid that thins the batter. Dice them frozen and fold them in.