Foodie Friday: Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Remember how we went apple picking and got pounds and pounds of apples? Ez pretty much devoured every last apple within a week. Except for a few tiny scragglers (picked by Declan) that he apparently deemed too little to be worth his attention. So what to do with those poor little apples that kept getting overlooked? 

Apple muffins, of course!

Nevermind that it was a hundred degrees outside when I decided to preheat the oven and pull out all the ingredients for a huge mess new muffin recipe. The calendar says it's fall, so we're going to do some fall baking. With the a/c blasting. #CaliforniaFall

Ez and I were going to make these while Declan napped, but Declan had other plans. He clearly knew we were up to fun without him and he wasn't gonna stand for that. So he joined us. Two little hands means lots and lots of flour everywhere. But they both loved stirring and pouring and banging bowls and spoons together so much that this may become a new weekly tradition. 

While the muffins were in the oven and the house was slowly filling up with warm cinnamony apple scents, Ez said to me, "Tank you moppy! That was so much fun!" Completely unprompted toddler gratitude. Basically the highlight of my parenting career ;)

A few years ago Courtney recommended this muffin recipe to us, and it really is fabulous in its original form. I can't resist a good crumb topping. Little buttery, sugary bits of goodness. But since I'm trying to feed the kids a little less sugar, and just overall healthier, I decided to change it up a bit. It would be fine as is, if Ez stuck with just one muffin a day, but he's a muffin fiend and one muffin a day just won't cut it. 

Even with a tad less sugar, and zero butter (or crumbs...sniff), Ez is a fan. I hear "Can I haz a mushie, Moppy?" all day long, until I finally tell him we're all out of muffins, and then he walks around muttering to himself, "No more mushies. We're all out of mushies." It's really sad and pathetic, but white lies are a part of parenting, amIright?

While the original recipe made jumbo muffins, mini muffins are much more fun (and less messy) for tiny fingers. This recipe makes two dozen mini muffins, or more like 25-26 if you don't eat any of the batter (but what's the fun of that, I ask you??)

Ingredients

- 1 3/4 cup flour

- 1 tsp. baking powder

- 1 tsp. baking soda

- 1/2 tsp. salt

- 2 tsps. cinnamon

- 3 oz. plain greek yogurt

- 4 oz. unsweetened apple sauce

- 1/4 cup granulated sugar

- 1/4 cup brown sugar

- 2 tsps. vanilla extract

- 2 eggs

- 1/4 cup milk (we used almond milk)

- 2 small apples - shredded

Directions

- Preheat oven to 425 F.

- In a large bowl beat apple sauce, yogurt, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and milk together.

- In a small bowl whisk remaining dry ingredients together. Slowly add and mix dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Fold in shredded apple. 

- Spoon batter into a mini muffin tin, filling all the way to the top.

- Bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes. Lower heat to 350 F and bake an additional 7-10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

We dove right into these fresh from the oven. They're perfectly light and moist, and chock full of apple shreds. I've been storing the rest in a ziplock bag at room temperature. The original recipe states they are good at room temperature up to 5 days, but ours didn't last that long. 

If you care about this sort of thing, here's the nutritional breakdown per muffin:

calories - 60, fat - 0.7 grams, carbs - 12 grams, protein - 2 grams, sugars - 5.5 grams, fiber - 1 gram

And if you don't care, add the crumbs and glaze! Mmmm, delicious.

What's your go to fall snack? We're always on the lookout for ideas to keep these growing boys' bellies full.

And just like that, one more fall activity gets crossed off the list:

Update - apparently Ez has decided the muffin tops are where it's at. I opened the trash and found this:

Any tips on baking just muffin tops??