Recipe: Muppet Muffins (Slightly adapted from Gene Shalit's recipe for Movie Crumb Cake)

I've baked a variation on Gene Shalit's Movie Crumb Cake, slightly modified from a recipe in In the Kitchen with Miss Piggy — a celebrity cookbook published in 1996 to support Citymeals-on-Wheels, which provides "1.8 million meals to over 16,500 elderly New Yorkers each year."

1. Before going to the theater, preheat oven to 325 degree. (Note: postheat not recommended.) While waiting, line a muffin tin with 6 paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl, mix:

• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/8 cup granulated white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1-1/2 tablespoons margarine (this must be exact; do not leave any margarine for error)

Cut in margarine with a pastry blender until it's crumbly. Set aside. (After all that, you set it aside. What a recipe.)

3. In a large (not big, not huge, a large) bowl, mix until very smooth:

• 1/4 cup soft margarine
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg (out of shell)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4. Then — and only then - slowly, verrrrry slowly — mix in:

• 1 cup sifted flour
• 1/2 cup sour cream (why do they put a date on sour cream?)

Alternate the flour and sour cream additions, starting and ending with flour. Just blend; don't overmix.

5. Divide half of this mixture among the lined muffin tins.

6. Sprinkle half of topping (you remember the topping — that stuff up in the first paragraph marked 2).

7. Place remaining batter (this is the first I hear of "batter." Where did this come from?) on top of crumb mixture (2 — very busy number).

8. Top (that's a verb, i.e., to Top) with remaining crumb mixture (how much of this stuff is there?).

9. Place everything — pans, topping, bottoming, crumbs, the whole business — in oven (which by this time better be at 325 degrees or else you're going to need a new oven) and set timer (I forgot to tell you, you need a timer) for 20 minutes.

10. Test for doneness. (Check dictionary for "doneness.")

Donate muffins to neighbor and go to the movies.

Makes 6 muffins.

This recipe was adapted by Mary Bilyeu and originally posted on AnnArbor.com on Nov. 23, 2011.