Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Apple Walnut Spice Muffins

I wanted a nutritious muffin to have around the house for breakfasts this week, so I worked out this uber healthy solution. They are vegan and oil free, so there are no added fats. This, of course, means that they are a bit more dense than their buttery cousins...but for breakfast, I would rather skip the fatty bakery items to know I am putting good things into my body (at least most of the time). If you want a fluffier muffin, you could try substituting some of the whole wheat pastry flour for all-purpose flour, or adding oil in lieu of some of the applesauce - but of course, these work for me just the way they are.

Apple Walnut Spice Muffins
Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c. rolled oats
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. ginger
1/4 t. freshly grated nutmeg

Wet Ingredients:
2 heaping T. ground flax meal
1/4 c. soymilk
1 c. applesauce
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4. c. maple syrup (or up the brown sugar to 1/2 c.)
1 apple, peeled, cored, and diced or grated

Optional:
1/2 c. chopped walnuts (if not using walnuts, you could add a second diced or grated apple)

Strudel Topping:
2 T. brown sugar
2 T. rolled oats

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift or whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flax meal and soymilk until combined, then add the applesauce, brown sugar, and maple syrup. Mix well, then add the apple. Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients until just combined, then fold in the chopped walnuts (if using). Divide the batter evenly among 12 lined muffin cups. Stir the brown sugar and oats together to make the strudel topping, and sprinkle over the filled muffin cups. Bake for 15 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.

p.s. Happy Anniversary C!

3 comments:

Chez Megane said...

Hey mon amie! So, I keep seeing delicious muffins on a lot of food blogs and it's driving me crazy. Muffins aren't really consumed here in Paris. =) Without a muffin pan, any ideas on how I could still make these? Maybe just bake like a cake in a square pan? I suppose it's close enough to a cake batter. Any advice appreciated.

lovemily88 said...

i've decided that when you post new recipes, i'm going to casually be in your neighborhood... if you find some muffins missing, it was belvedere.

Erin said...

Megan, hmm...I bet this (and other muffin recipes) would work fine in a cake pan, cut into squares or whatever. I bet for this recipe in particular, a loaf pan might even work better, so you could treat it like a bread. The best solution is probably to make your American friends pack a muffin tin on their way to Paris ;)