Firstly, thank you to everyone who wished Sophie a happy birthday! We had a fun, low-key celebration at our house (pictures later this week). It was lovely!
Secondly, I have a brinner (aka breakfast for dinner) problem. I get in grooves with my cooking–I try something delicious and that’s all I want in life for the next few weeks. (You may recall these, these, and these from the peanut butter and chocolate phase). Well friends. I’m in a brinner phase. (Side note: I’m also in a separate avocado/green chile/lime phase.)
Whether or not you’re a brinner fan, these muffins are worth a try.
Definitely more decadent than your typical breakfast, these were a special occasion food for us. If you want to take them down a notch, you can certainly leave off the glaze. We just loved the idea of them tasting a bit more like apple fritters (our favorite doughnuts). Yum!
I don’t have much in the way of tips or tricks for these, as they seemed pretty straightforward. The only thing I can think of is that for whatever reason, I find when I’m making a glaze with powdered sugar, the amount of powdered sugar I need tends to vary. You want a pourable, but somewhat thick glaze. Add powdered sugar slowly, till you reach the consistency you hope for. You may need a touch more or a tad less than the amount I have written.
- 2 green apples, peeled, cored, and diced
- 4 Tbsp butter
- ⅓c brown sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 Tbsp water
- ⅓c flour
- ¼c oil
- ¼c applesauce
- 1c sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2⅓c flour
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1c buttermilk
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1¼c powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp hot water
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Prepare the apples. Melt butter in a large saute pan. Add apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, and water. Cook 7-10 minutes over medium heat until apples are tender. The sauce should be rather thick and caramel-y. Stir in the flour and set aside. (this prevents the apples from sinking to the bottom of the muffins)
- In a large bowl, stir together the oil, applesauce, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. In a small bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Alternately, add ⅓ of the flour mixture, then ½ of the buttermilk to the eggs/sugar mixture. Repeat, adding ⅓ of the flour, the other ½ of the buttermilk, and finish with the last ⅓ of the flour mixture till just combined. Fold in apples.
- Line 14-16 muffin cups with paper muffin liners. Scoop filling into the muffin cups, filling all the way to the top. You should be able to fill 14-16 muffin cups. *I only have one muffin pan, so I baked 12 muffins, then baked another 4.
- Bake muffins at 400 degrees for 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in the muffin pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack for another 10 minutes.
- While the muffins are cooling, make the glaze. In a medium bowl, melt butter in the microwave. Whisk in powdered sugar, hot water, and vanilla. It should be very fluid, but still almost entirely opaque. When the muffins are cool enough to handle (they should be by now), dip the tops in the glaze. Allow glaze to harden before serving.
Adapted from Chasing Some Blue Sky




{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
They look so yum! I hope I can wait until the weekend to make them!
Now this is my kind of muffin! Looks devine…
You had me at apple fritter and muffin.
I need to click a ‘like’ button for Elisabeth’s comment.
I will be making these for a treat for our Young Women’s group at church this week. Can’t hardly wait!
Yum! These looks heavenly! And I’m happy to hear Sophie had a happy 1st birthday! 1st birthdays are always so exciting.
Can I just come live at your house?
I love Brinner and these sound awesome!! Thanks for sharing!
I made them…already…last night! And they are YUMMY! I was skeptical about the amount of cinnamon, though I love it and add it to lots of stuff, but it worked! I got more like 17 muffins but maybe my apples were bigger than most? Either way, they baked up just fine. Thanks!!
Yum! Have you tried Nigella Lawson’s recipe for donut muffins in How to be a Domestic Goddess? Those are excellent, in case you want to continue the donuts-as-muffins-as-breakfast-for-dinner theme:-B And if you’re looking for other ideas for brinner, my mum always made bread pudding for dinner, with custard . . .
I LOVE Nigella Lawson! I’ll have to get my hands on that book to try out her donut muffins immediately! They sound heavenly. Thanks for the suggestion!
I’m curious about the nutritional information on your recipes. I’m very interested in cooking many of the recipes I find but we have some nutritional restrictions and would appreciate anything you could provide.
thank you! Love your website
Elizabeth – Sorry it took so long to respond! I just got back into town and am finally getting the chance to sort through things. Thanks for your comment! What are your restrictions? I’m not sure if they’re calorie or fat gram related, but one of my favorite tools for calculating nutrition facts for homemade recipes is this tool by Spark People. You type in the ingredients, amounts, and the number of servings for the recipe, and it will calculate the nutrition facts per serving. I realize this is a little more work on your end for sure, but it might be worth a try. Best of luck!