just kick my mornings off to the perfect start. Full of warm, spicy cinnamon, delicious crisp apple bits, and so, so scrumptious they are hard not to start anyone’s morning off in the right direction, honestly.
Apple and cinnamon is always a great pairing, so I started with that as the flavor base for this muffin. There is cinnamon in the muffin batter, and the muffins are also topped with a cinnamon sugar mixture. While I do like a streusel topping for apple muffins as well, adding a simple sugar topping saves a lot of work and still gives them a nice little crunch and finishing flavor. I used plenty of diced apples in the batter, but these are high-rising muffins and there is enough batter around the apples that you won’t mistake these muffins for a miniature apple crisp or crumble.
Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Makes 12.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 1/2 cups diced apple
- 3 tbsp coarse sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and spices.
- In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and egg. Whisk in melted butter, vegetable oil and vanilla. Working in two or three additions, alternately stir in flour mixture and buttermilk, ending with an addition of flour and mixing only until no streaks of flour remain visible in the batter. Stir in diced apple.
- Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups filling each to the top, or slightly over.
- In a small bowl, stir together coarse sugar and additional 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon. Sprinkle generously over muffins.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed.
- Cool muffins on a wire rack.
