Secret Recipe Club: Apple Cinnamon Muffins

It's a great time of year for apples, and baking anything with apples and cinnamon makes the house smell so good!  Naturally, though, when you get a bag of apples, there are always a few in there that have a bruise or imperfection and the kids don't want to eat them out of hand.  Those are great for cooking, though, as you can trim around those spots.  I bought way too many apples to make a Thanksgiving pie, so I used up two nice big Rome apples in this recipe for Apple Cinnamon Muffins, which I found over at No Reason Needed. This is my Secret Recipe Club pick for December.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup orange juice
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups chopped, peeled tart apples (I used 2 Rome apples)
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
Demerara sugar for sprinkling

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Set aside.  Mix beaten egg, orange juice and melted butter, then stir into the dry ingredients until just moistened.  This will be a  VERY thick batter.

Fold in apples and walnuts.  Fill paper-lined muffin cups (I used an ice-cream scoop since the dough was so thick).

Sprinkle with Demerara sugar.  Bake at 350 until muffins test done; begin checking after 20 minutes.  It took mine 28 minutes to finish--think I might have overdone it on the apples a bit--the ones I used were REALLY big.

THINGS I CHANGED: I doubled the cinnamon from the original recipe, added nutmeg, added the walnuts and topped the muffins with Demerara sugar for a little extra crunch.

COOK'S NOTE: I was glad to read the note on the blog post (separate from the printable recipe) that said "don't let the lack of liquid ingredients scare you!"  I was SURE I would need more liquid, but these muffins turned out very moist--fiddling with that would have been a disaster.

SURVEY SAYS: These muffins were moist and tasty, full of nice big chunks of apples! They're great for breakfast or anytime.

I love how the recipes as this blog are all shown in printable format.  No Reason Needed is a family blog and recipe blog all rolled into one.  Recipes are uncomplicated and family-friendly!