The warm and earthy aroma of cinnamon is just right for this chilly weather. These days I wouldn’t mind a generous sprinkle of this gorgeous sweet spice on my french toast in breakfast, a mug of latte in afternoon or a glass of hot chocolate just before the bedtime. I am in love with it’s soothingly sweet aroma.
I had a sudden craving for a classic apple pie on this Friday evening. And it was sudden that I could not wait for the shortcrust pastry to chill in fridge, rather I wanted something very quick. I didn’t want to step out either, the cold winds were threatening me to stay inside.
But the craving needed to be satiated soon. And then my mind started working on it’s own, thinking about the substitutes too. Hmm…how about an apple cake? Nah…that would take some time either. How about turning that into tiny cakes. Yeah…that works. Quick, simple and satisfying. And the best part…I could enjoy them again in breakfast next morning. Yay!!!…let’s whip up some buttery moist apple muffins. A quick search led me to this recipe on AllRecipes. Going by the reviews, I zeroed on to this one.
I modified the recipe a bit, replaced some of the plain flour with whole wheat flour, and powdered oats for the crumble topping. The result was buttery, moist muffins with big enough apple chunks to bite into and with the most desirous sweet aroma of cinnamon. And did I tell you that I also ran out of paper cups, so snipped some brown paper out of my craft box and made these easy and rustic looking handmade paper cups. And in case, you are interested in that too, cut any paper of your choice into 8 cm x 8 cm square, tuck that roughly inside the muffin tray holes with the help of a glass and pour the batter right into. And later you could also tie them up with some thread or ribbon too.
Ingredients
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups diced apples
1/2 tsp salt {skip, if using salted butter}
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup quick oats, powdered
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius. Line a muffin tray with 12 paper cups.
- In a large bowl, stir together 1 1/4 cup plain flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt.
- In a separate smaller bowl, mix together the egg, buttermilk, 1/2 cup melted butter, vanilla and 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar until sugar has dissolved.
- Pour into the flour mixture and sprinkle the diced apple into the bowl as well. Stir just until everything is blended. Spoon into the prepared muffin tin, filling the cups to the top.
- In a small bowl, stir together 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/3 cup powdered oats and cinnamon. Drizzle in 2 tablespoons of melted butter while tossing with a fork until well blended. Sprinkle this over the tops of the muffins.
- Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the tops of the muffins spring back when lightly pressed.