You can make two versions of this muffin. One is guilt free and the other I'd call dessert. You choose. When I make muffins I typically want a healthy breakfast or snack that doesn't trigger a sugar surge. Many muffins are really just cupcakes in disguise. It's important to distinguish cake-like muffins from the good-for-you kind. Depending on what ingredients you use, and whether you include the crumb topping, this muffin can be either.
My muffin is 100% whole wheat and packed with pumpkin, applesauce (no oil!), apples chunks, and just enough natural sugar for the right balance of sweet and healthy. They are moist, flavorful, and delicious. (And especially good kept in the freezer and reheated in the microwave until warmed throughout.) You could always grate the apple for a less chunky texture.
If you want dessert muffins, you can use white flour, oil or butter, refined sugar, etc. and add the streusal topping. Or use the healthy ingredients and add the crumble anyway. Why not?- some goodness is better than none!
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup applesauce (or canola oil)
1 egg, whisked
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup natural cane sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 cup apple, peeled, cored, and chopped or grated (I used 1 Golden Delicious)
Brown Sugar Streusel Topping (optional):
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp. butter
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease or place muffin liners in a muffin tin.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, applesauce, and egg. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and stir just until moistened. Gently fold in apples. (Batter will be very thick.) Divide batter evenly among muffins tins.
3. To make the streusal topping (optional), in a small bowl mix together the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle evenly over the muffin batter.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the tin to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy warm!
Makes 10 muffins.
(Adapted from All Recipes)
I love this recipe. I think anything w/ apples makes it wonderful (so soft and sweet). I did it w/ 1/4 c sugar rather than 3/4 c sugar AND applesauce rather than oil (which you recommended) AND the streusal topping. It was very yummy-- all the sweetness was on the top which permeated throughout the muffin and i didn't even miss the other 1/2 c of sugar that was suppose to be in the rest of the batter. I felt better about eating the streusal topping since i ommitted the 1/2 sugar in the original batter. I tried a batch w/ whole wheat pastry and another w/ white wheat. I liked them both.
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