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!

Cooking with Alicia & Annie: Apple Muffins

Apple Muffins



I made this recipe for the Cooking with Alicia & Annie contest. Here's the original recipe:

Wet Mix
2 cups grated raw apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Dry Mix
1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
1 cup self-raising flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, prepare pans. Thoroughly combine the wet mix ingredients. Combine the dry mix ingredients and mix thoroughly into the wet mix. Spoon into pans and bake for 20-25 minutes. Makes 12. Nice sprinkled with equal parts degrees F brown sugar and spice. These are lovely moist muffins and hardly need to be buttered. They will keep will, but are best kept refrigerated and then warmed before eating. Variations: Apple Raisin and Nut: Add 1/2 cup chopped raisins, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 1 Tbsp grated lemon or orange rind to the wet mix. Apple and Date: Add 3/4 cup of finely copped dates and 1 Tbsp grated lemon rind to the wet mix. Apple and Bran: Substitute the wholemeal and self-raising flour with 1 cup of flaky bran and 1-1/2 cups degrees F self-raising flour.

Changes I made: I used regular all-purpose flour since I did not have self-rising flour. I added 1 1/4 tsp baking powder and 1/9 tsp salt to make up for that. I also added 1/2 cup chopped walnuts to the wet mix.

My review of the recipe: As I was mixing this up, the batter seemed REALLY thick. Too thick! It was more the consistency of chocolate-chip cookie dough than muffin batter. I had to actually use 2 spoons to get it into the muffin cups. I looked at some other muffin recipes that I have used in the past and noticed that all of them contained between 2/3 and 3/4 cup milk for every 2 cups flour.

The batter TASTED fabulous and I was so optimistic that I had found the recipe for the delicious apple-nut muffins that were sold at the bakery where I worked in high school. But the finished product was too dry. I'm attributing this to the lack of milk in the recipe.

I will definitely make this recipe again, adding the milk that I think is missing.

Meanwhile, I think I'll make a little bread pudding or something with the muffins that didn't quite work. There's no sense letting all those good ingredients go to waste!

Tasty Tuesday: Blueberry Muffins

Continuing on a blueberry theme. I live in New Jersey, after all, and the berries are fabulous this year! I taught Middle Sister how to make these muffins yesterday.

I have modified this recipe a bit from a Better Homes & Gardens recipe.

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 beaten eggs
* 3/4 cup milk
* 1/2 cup melted butter (no substitutes)
* 1 tablespoon finely shredded lemon peel
* 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, thawed
* sugar for topping

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Put muffin papers in 18 regular size muffin pan cups. Set aside.

2. Stir together flour, the 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of dry mixture; set aside.

3. Combine eggs, milk, butter, and lemon peel; add all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in blueberries.

4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each almost full. Sprinkle tops with sugar. Bake in preheated oven 20 minutes or until golden. Cool in muffin cups on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups. Makes 18.

BLUEBERRY STORAGE TIP: Buy many pints of blueberries when they are in season. Rinse in a colander with cold water, and put in one-cup portions into zipper sandwich bags. Freeze. When you want to use blueberries in a recipe, just empty the frozen berries right into the batter--they'll thaw as it bakes! I buy blueberries once a year and freeze enough to last until the next summer.

Visit Many Little Blessings for more Tasty Tuesday recipes!