Pumpkin Apple Muffins

This is a recipe that Beth had made a while ago and it’s stood out in my head for so long but can’t recall ever making… Maybe I did, though…

It’s PRETTY sweet (and I mean taste-wise, not coolness factor-wise, although there’s that, too) so I lessened the amount of sugar but not enough. Generally, you can get away with not adding the full amount of sugar in baking but when you’re cutting it down by a half, I worry about the texture and the whole science of baking thing. All this to say, the recipe I’m going to post is what I used but if you’re brave enough, definitely try to cut the sugar by another half cup since it’s a bit too sugarly for my taste. In fact, when I brought them into work, someone called them “cupcakes”. Sigh.

But first thing’s first – I didn’t have Pumpkin Pie Spice in my cabinet so instead of dropping over $6 on it, I just made my own and it was even more delicious than I thought it would be, because I adjusted it to my taste. And when I say “adjusted it to my taste”, I mean, I overloaded it with cinnamon. Mmm hmm.

Pumpkin Pie Spice:

5 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine and mix!

Okay, so the pumpkin apple muffin recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups finely chopped peeled apples (I actually wish I hadn’t cut mine so small. I love biting into a muffin and really tasting the chunks)

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut up your apples.

In a large bowl, mix up flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix up eggs, pumpkin, and oil. Pour this into the dry ingredient bowl and mix mix mix.

Fold in your chopped apples and fill a greased or paper-line muffin tin.

The original recipe told me it would make 12 but it turned out to make 24 little guys instead. I also had added a lot more apple than I was supposed to so that would account for some of the excess.

To make the struedel topping, cut butter into the sugar and flour until it look crumb-y. Sprinkle about a teaspoon onto each muffin. If you wanted to further healthify it, I would cut this step out all together. Again, the muffin is sweet enough as it is but the struedel topping just gives it an extra-special, sugary touch (Okay, someone stop me from unnecessarily hitting the “y” key)

Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes and then transfer to a baking rack.

Proceed to stuff your face with this deliciousness.

Perfect for brunch or an afternoon snack with tea

Tags: apple, butter, pumpkin, pumpkin apple muffin, pumpkin pie spice, struedel topping