I've been craving apple pie for the past few days, but since I don't have enough people around to help me eat it, I baked a batch of Apple Pie Muffins. They may not be quite as good pie, but they did the trick.
Hopefully Fuzz will like them, too. She doesn't care for the texture of baked fruit, but in this case the apple is chopped into very fine bits which kind of dissolve into the muffin so that you don't really notice the baked apple texture so much as the big burst of tart apple flavor.
Recipe
Apple Pie Muffins
Muffins made with Granny Smith apples and lots of cinnamon
Ingredients
- 2 very large or 3 medium Granny Smith apples
- 2 cups 9 ounces all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon plus ½ teaspoon for topping
- ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup granulated sugar plus 1 tablespoon for topping
- ¼ cup plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk low fat is fine
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray 14 muffin cups with flour-added baking spray or line with paper liners.
- Peel the apple, remove the core and chop into very fine bits. I recommend using a mini food processor. You should end up with about 2 ⅓ cups.
- In a small bowl, thoroughly mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, ¾ teaspoon of cinnamon and nutmeg.
- In a mixing bowl, lightly beat the egg with a fork, then stir in ½ cup of sugar, oil and vanilla. Add the chopped apple and stir well. Add the flour mixture and milk alternately, stirring just until blended.
- Divide the batter among the 14 muffin cups – it should come almost to the top. Mix together the reserved 1 tablespoon of sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon. Sprinkle over the top.
- Bake the muffins on the center rack for about 25 minutes. Let cool in the muffin pan. As the cool, loosen gently with edge of a knife, but do not remove. When the muffins are cool, remove from cups.
Notes
I tried adding walnuts to a few, but didn't like the texture of the heavy walnuts with the light cake. If you want to incorporate nuts, they'd probably work better on the top.
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KAnn
(Sorry about the weirdly worded sentence....never post too quickly if you are a poor typist.) But it was very exciting to see your book on the shelf!
KAnn
I just had to mention that I saw Cookie Madness at the Barnes & Noble in Golden today, It really is a fantastic book!-I love it! Anna! (and the muffins look yummy, too)
Carole Resnick
Necessity is the mother of invention. I only had two medium Granny Smith apples. However, I had a large pear. I peeled, cored and chopped all the fruit and had enough for the recipe.
Anna
Hi Cindy, good question! But no, it's just a weird measurement. I didn't think 1/4 cup was quite enough so I used 2 teaspoons total.
CindyD
My husband has been wanting apple pie, too! I will bake these as soon as I buy more flour - can't believe I let myself run out! Question - is there a reason for the extra two teaspoons of oil?