Crunchy topping for muffins?

[htc]

Do you know how to get the crunchy topping on a muffin to look nice? When I go to coffee houses, the topping on their muffins always look perfect, covers every inch of the muffin and is uniform in thickness.

When I make muffins at home and put a crunchy top on it, as it bakes and expands, the muffins don't look as nice. After I pour the batter into the paper muffin cups, I put the topping on and try to press it to the batter hoping it will stick better. Any thoughts? I usually use a variety of stuff in the topping: butter, flour, brown sugar, rolled oats.

I took a picture of the muffins I made last night and will try to post it when I get home so you can see how mine turned out.

 

[Alix]

htc, I usually let my muffins cook a bit before putting the topping on. Then if it doesn't look right when they come out I add a bit more til it looks good. I have to say though, that if they TASTE good, no one cares what they look like!

 

[mudbug]

I haven't tried this, htc, but it may work:

Bake your muffins without toppings until almost done. Then take them out of the oven and dip the tops in a generous amount of topping to make sure the surface is covered. Pop back in oven to finish baking.

The idea being that mostly-cooked muffins won't still be too mushy to handle or fall out of their liners (if you use them).

 

[htc]

Thanks for the tip. I will try to partially bake them before I top.

The muffins always taste good, but I have really been trying to put an emphasis on the appearance of my baked goods. I usually don't care and they taste good but look ugly, so now I've moved to the next step. taste good AND look good! If I make some next week, I'll post to let you knwo how it turned out.

 

[mudbug]

I'd love to know if my dumb idea works!