Streusel Berry Muffins

      I had an old friend in town this week for the Spoleto festival here in Charleston.  We had planned on going out for breakfast, but after a few days of heavy eating on her part and realizing that she was staying just a short walk from my apartment we decided to just have a simple breakfast at the hotel.  Now we could have gotten food at the hotel, but my thoughts immediately strayed to muffins.  I love all kinds of muffins, banana nut, bran muffins, chocolate chip, but my favorite are always berry muffins.  Not wanting to go to store again I root around in my freezer to find a giant bag of mixed berries from costco.  Perfect!
      These muffins are not like the traditional muffin batter.  Most muffins are made with melted butter or vegetable oil, sugar, flour, eggs, etc that have been gently mixed together into a thin batter which causes tunneling in the batter.   These muffins are made more like a pound cake.  They have that rich texture, but they are made with less sugar which allows the sweetness of the berries to really  dominate the flavor of the muffin.  Also they have a crumbly streusel topping over the top, giving them a crunchy and sweet little extra pop.  The other little extra that actually makes for a nice full flavor is the addition of some whole wheat flour instead of just all-purpose flour (not to mention whole grains are always better for us). 
     I would recommend just using a hand beater for this because it is such a small batch that it won't mix well in your stand mixer.  Beat together:
1/2 stick softened butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
when this mixture gets fluffy add
1 egg and mix until well incorporated
In a separate bowl mix
1 1/3 cup ap flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
and measure out
1 cup milk and
1 tsp vanilla
continuing to use the hand beater, slowly add flour mixture while alternating with the milk mixture until it is all incorporated.  Now clean out your beater and switch to a large rubber spatula.  As I said I used frozen mixed berries from costco, these include blackberries, raspberries and blueberries, but feel free to use whatever fresh berries you have about or maybe just pick one of the berries for a simpler flavor. Using your rubber spatula fold in
1 1/2 cup berries
divide evenly into a greased muffin tin, I made 6 muffins, but the nice thing about the tins is for the most part the same amount of batter will fit in one tin no matter how big or small they are.
      Finally they will get a struessel topping.  I like oatmeal in mine and I generally make a bunch at a time and keep it around in my freezer to have to make a quick fruit dessert.  It's simple
1/4 cup cold butter, cut into cubes
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour (I like using whole wheat)
2 TBS quick oats
a pinch of salt
quickly mix with a hand mixer until it just comes together and forms clumps.  Don't over mix it or it will just become paste.  It's okay to still have chunks of butter.  Take this and sprinkle over the top of your muffins and bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.  Longer if you are making big muffins, a little less if you are making mini muffins. 
      These were so great served warm with a little bit of salted butter and of course with some wonderful company.  Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.