Easy Coffee Muffins Recipe with Real Coffee

These easy coffee muffins are made with real brewed coffee for an ideal way to infuse your morning coffee throughout the entire meal and get an extra kick to start the day.

This super fast and easy muffin recipe is sweet and full of actual coffee for a flavor that works for a leisurely weekend breakfast or as a grab-and-go treat on busy days.

Quick & Easy

The muffin recipe uses melted butter meaning there’s no need to worry about softening before getting started.

If you’re using hot coffee to start the muffins, place the butter in the coffee and let it melt, adding additional heat only if necessary.

Using leftover or cold coffee will work, just melt the butter in a small saucepan instead of in the hot coffee.

Do let the melted butter and hot coffee cool a bit before continuing with the recipe. Adding an egg to hot liquid will likely cook it and well, we’re not looking for poached eggs here.

Want to skip the melting of butter altogether? Substitute vegetable oil or even olive oil for the butter. It willl provide a slightly different flavor to be sure but will still provide a moist muffin to fill those bellies in a hurry. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the dry ingredients if you use oil instead of salted butter.

What Kind of Coffee to Use

This recipe is designed for real brewed coffee, which gives the muffins a genuine, full coffee flavor. Use whatever you have on hand. A medium or dark roast will give you the most noticeable coffee flavor in the finished muffin.

Leftover coffee from the morning pot works perfectly here and is a great way to use it up rather than pouring it down the drain.

For extra strong coffee flavor, stir a tablespoon of instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder into the brewed coffee before adding it to the batter. This is the easiest way to intensify the flavor without changing the recipe. Be careful that it doesn’t get too bitter.

If you want a lighter coffee flavor, use 1/2 cup coffee and 1/2 cup milk instead of a full cup of coffee.

Other Substitution Ideas

I used salted butter, simply because it’s generally what I have on hand. If you use unsalted butter add 1/2 teaspoon salt to the dry ingredients and proceed with the recipe.

Light brown sugar was used to test the recipe but dark brown sugar would provide an richer, sweeter flavor to the buttery muffins.

Optional Additions

These are a soft and fluffy muffin but you can give them some additional texture and flavor, if desired.

Consider these adding these things to the base recipe to fill it out some more and make them extra interesting for buffets, pot lucks, etc.

• Add up to 1 cup of chopped nuts
• Whisk 1 teaspoon of ground spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.) into the flour mixture
• Fold in up to 1 cup of chocolate chips for a sweeter breakfast treat
• For an over-the-top treat, add up to 1 cup of chopped chocolate covered espresso beans

Troubleshooting

The muffins are dry. This usually means they were overbaked. Start checking at 15 minutes. The muffins are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Pull them as soon as that happens.

The coffee flavor is too subtle. Use a stronger brew to start, or stir a tablespoon of instant espresso powder into the coffee before adding it to the batter. Dark roast coffee will also give you a more pronounced flavor than a light roast.

The muffins are dense. This is almost always from overmixing. Mix the wet and dry ingredients until just combined. A few streaks of flour are fine. Overmixing develops the gluten and gives you a tough, dense muffin.

The butter seized up when I added the egg. Make sure the coffee and butter mixture has cooled to room temperature before whisking in the egg. Hot liquid will cook the egg before it can be incorporated properly.

The muffins stuck to the pan. Grease the tins well or use paper liners. Let the pan cool for the full 5 minutes before trying to remove them.

For another easy quick bread to pair with your morning cup, my cinnamon muffins are a straightforward option.