Mini Caramel Coffee Cake Muffin Recipe

Caramel Coffee Cake Muffins recipe makes the best, moist, addictive, mini coffee cakes, stuffed with caramel sauce, using oil or applesauce.

Mini Coffee Cake Muffins 

These Mini Caramel Coffee Cake Muffins are amazing and they disappear so quickly we always have trouble getting a photo! The streusel topping and the caramel go perfectly together.

This Mini Caramel Coffee Cake Muffin Recipe is a definite keeper.

Coffee Cake Muffins 

Applesauce Coffee Cake Muffins 

I usually swap oil for applesauce when baking muffins, quick breads, pancakes and some cakes. Not all the time but most of the time. I figure that no one ever notices and the less oil in my life the better! ?

It's amazing how much fat, and even calories you can remove from your diet by skipping oil and adding applesauce instead? Can you believe that a half a cup of oil is just under 1000 calories? Specifically 992, and has 224 grams of fat.

A half a cup of unsweetened applesauce has roughly 50 calories  and has no fat at all. This is the best part, and your baked goods will still turn out moist and flavorful. 

Only now they'll have some additional nutrients and fiber.

You can't ask for anything more. Can you?

Tips for Substituting Oil 

• Always use unsweetened applesauce, without additional flavorings added, as it is sweet enough and can change the flavor and texture of your final result 
• Watch other liquid ingredients in the recipe. My personal rule is if milk, water or another liquid are included in the recipe I generally don't substitute the oil with applesauce. The problem is you always have to reduce the amounts of the other liquid ingredients or risk recipe failure.
• Personally, I NEVER substitute applesauce for oil when making cookies in case they turn out mushy or cakes and brownies dry-ish and crumbly.
• The only issue you have to watch when choosing a replacement for oil is to select something with a milder flavor. You must consider how your chosen substitution will change the flavor or even color of the recipe you're making. 

What can you Substitute for Vegetable Oil when Baking

All of the following ingredients can be used as a vegetable oil substitute in a recipe for baked goods. They all have a little fat or pectin which fills in effectively for the oil in the recipe.

This means your baked good will turn out just the same as it would have if you used the oil.

• applesauce, preferably unsweetened
• avocado, ripe and mashed
• banana, ripe and mashed
• beets, cooked and pureed, use only if food is chocolate because beets will alter food color
• butter, melted and cooled
• butternut squash, cooked and pureed
• cauliflower, cooked and pureed
• coconut oil, will alter flavor somewhat
• mayo
• olive oil, will alter flavor somewhat
• pumpkin, cooked and pureed 
• sour cream
• sweet potato, cooked and pureed with some oil works best in my opinion
• vegetable shortening
• yogurt

But let's get one thing straight: applesauce is not a great substitute for butter, and will lead to disaster in cookies and any other treat with a crispy snap. Unless you like cake-y, mushy cookies. 

You can also start keeping a stash of emergency-fix ingredients. Sometimes I have a banana that’s riper than I like, so I place it in an airtight container in the freezer. You’d be surprised by the number of times I’ve been thrilled that it was there, and used one when I’ve come up short in a recipe.

The applesauce substitution will work in recipes calling for butter, but recipes requiring oil work out better. 

For the record, you'll need to substitute three-quarters of the butter in a recipe with oil. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 stick or a half a cup or 8 tablespoons of butter, you only need to substitute 6 tablespoons of oil.

Avocado is a terrific substitute for butter

Coffee Cake with Caramel Sauce

Mini Coffee Cake Recipe 

Caramel Coffee Cake 

• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• ⅔ cup milk
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 ½ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt

Crumble topping

• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 tblsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• ⅓ cup sugar
• ½ cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare a baking pan or muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.

Beat together oil and milk, then beat in eggs.

Beat in flour, a little at a time, plus cinnamon, baking powder, and salt until smooth. Set aside.

Make crumble or crumb topping by cutting together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and sugar with a pastry cutter or 2 forks until crumbly. Mix in pecans.

Pour muffins batter into your prepared pan until ⅔ full. Then add a generous scoop of topping and press into each cup.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, and remove.

Cook 15 minutes, then pipe in your favorite caramel sauce.

These mini muffins are simply amazing.