Pretzel Chocolate Chip Muffins

Source: Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Ingredients:
Note from Mel: This recipe calls for ground pretzels. You can either use a food processor or blender to grind them up or smash them to smithereens in a ziploc bag. Take care not to grind them so small like the consistency of flour. It should be like a very coarse meal with small pretzel pieces - kind of like a crunchy dry cornmeal mixture. Too fine and the muffins will be dry. You'll also need some broken pretzels for the streusel - I left mine pretty chunky, just a pound or two with a rolling pin so they stay in nice big chunks. FYI: I used pretzel sticks but any thin pretzel like that (twists or sticks) should work fine.

for the streusel:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup ground pretzels (see note)
1/4 cup broken pretzels
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 Tablespoons butter, melted

for the muffins:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup ground pretzels (see note)
2/3 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (I just used regulars because I didn't have minis)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup milk
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a muffin tin (12-cup) with muffin liners or coat the muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.

For the streusel, in a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, ground pretzels, broken pretzels and cinnamon. Stir in the melted butter. Cover and chill the mixture while you make the muffin batter.

For the muffins, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, ground pretzels, chocolate chips, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

In a large liquid measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk together the milk, sugar, eggs, oil, butter and vanilla. Mix well. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring only until just incorporated (so the muffins are light and fluffy).

Let the batter sit for 2-3 minutes. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups. Squeeze the chilled streusel into little clumps and top each muffin with a good smothering of streusel. This is fairly messy; don't worry, it's worth it. You may not use all the streusel but most of it should get piled high on top of the muffins.

Bake the muffins for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean without any wet batter. Let the muffins cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely. Try not to eat them all in one sitting.

Notes:
These were my April Muffins-of-the-Month.  They were epic.  'Nough said.