I got hit with the baking bug during a recent vacation, and wanted to revisit apples. In the past, I’ve made an Caramel Apple cake, a la my grandmother, with a fair amount of success. But, that’s a lot of cake for a two person household, and taking it into the office doesn’t work when there’s not a lot of people actually IN the office these days.
Luckily, there’s a lovely site named Sally’s Baking Addiction that has never really steered me wrong with ideas in the past.
Sally’s Healthy Apple Muffins
Equipment
- 12-count muffin pan
- Box grater
- 1 large bowl
- 1 medium bowl
Ingredients
- 260 g whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 133 g smooth unsweetened applesauce at room temperature
- 160 ml pure maple syrup at room temperature
- 70 g canola oil
- 1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- 210 g shredded/grated apple
- 90 g chopped pecans optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425℉, and line the muffin pan with cupcake liners (or spray with nonstick spray).
- In the large bowl, whisk the flour, powder, soda, spices, and salt together until combined, then set aside. In the medium bowl, whisk eggs, applesauce, syrup, oil, and vanilla together until well combined. Pour the wet ingredients to the dry, stirring only a few times. Add the apple and nuts, if using. With a spatula, gently fold everything together until just combined. Note that the batter will be very thick.
- Spoon the batter into the liners, filling them to the top. Bake for 5 minutes at 425℉, then reduce the oven temperature to 350℉ with the muffins still inside. Bake for an additional 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool for 5 minutes in the muffing pan, and then transfer out to a wire rack. Continue to cool, or enjoy warm!
Notes
I deviated from Sally’s original recipe, in two ways. First off, I don’t typically have coconut oil in my house on the regular, so I switched it up with Canola oil. Second, I didn’t realize how low on cinnamon I was, so I had to finish about a quarter of the second teaspoon with a cross between nutmeg and allspice.
It was really interesting to make any kind of baked recipe without the addition of sugar, and it turned out that the maple syrup and apples brought enough sweetness that sugar really wasn’t necessary. That being said, I didn’t get nearly enough spice out of the muffin. And now I’m wondering if my cinnamon was also too old to bring much flavor.
I did put them into an air tight container and had one the following day – held up pretty well! MM had one a couple of days after I baked them, and he was surprised at how dry they had gotten.
As for the healthy part, according to Sally’s site, they’re under 200 calories each, but the carbs are around 30 grams. So good, but not great. Still, they were a good enough try, and I’ll try them again!
What muffins should I try next?