Backpost: Filo cups are such a simple appetizer or dessert element. Any recipe I’ve found for making your own filo dough seems horrendously difficult and nightmarish, so a quick box of these can’t be beat. A fun summer snack to-go is to fill these with strudel filling, consisting of apple chunks, raisins (for more traditional, go black- but for a sweeter tooth, go golden). These bake for a mere 8 minutes and you’re set!

• To make a healthy strudel filling, my mother taught me to just put the apples and raisins straight in to a deep-set pan with some cinnamon. You can add a little vanilla and something to add moisture if your apples aren’t throwing about enough water (apple sauce, or a thick fruit nectar- mango, pear, or apricot work best). There’s really no need for butter- you get a nice creamy-like texture from cooking the apples thoroughly. The trick is to find that sweet spot between retaining a slight hint of crunchiness- otherwise you’ll end up with apple sauce (unless, of course, that was your desired result all along)
• These cups work for savoury dishes as well as they do sweet- I’ve found them to also be delicious as a sweet-and-salty appetizer with pear chunks, honey, dried apricot pieces, parmesan, and salt. Really, though, anything works!

Backpost: So my new thing is muffins… to the point where, all summer, my friends’ nickname for me was The Muffin Girl. The thing is, these little guys are so handy! You can wrap them, carry them in your purse for snacking on during movies, concerts, at work, on the road… what purpose do they NOT serve? Best yet, mine are very moist, and don’t crumb excessively, making them ever more convenient a snack. I rest my case.

I started out with a recipe from Emeril, and this was my first attempt and, thus, only lightly altered- I didn’t know the proportions well enough yet to be changing things, so my main substitution was half the butter for Earth Balance, half for applesauce, as well as using light sour cream rather than buttermilk. I also used white whole wheat flour in lieu of AP.

Apple Streusel-Topped Muffins

Adapted from Emeril Lagasse’s Apple-Nut Muffins with Streusel Topping

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur organic white whole wheat flour
• 2 large eggs, brown, organic, cage-free 
• 2 tablespoons melted earth balance soy butter
• 3 tablespoons organic unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/2 cup light (low-fat) sour cream  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Saigon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup peeled, cored, and chopped sweet apples

Streusel:

• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons melted earth balance soy butter

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and butter a large-cup muffin tin (or some combination of large and small cups)
2. Place the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg) in a large mixing bowl.
3. In a smaller bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, applesauce, and melted butter. Thenwhisk in the sugar. Add to the dry ingredients in two batches, and mix until just combined- be sure not to overmix! Then, fold in the apple chunks (I like quite large chunks – you may enjoy smaller). Fill the muffin cups until somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 full.
4. Place the streusel ingredients in a small bowl together until crumbly (sugar, flour, cinnamon, soy butter), then sprinkle a spoonful of the crumbly goodness over each muffin. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and with crispy streusel, then allow 5 minutes cooling time on a wire rack before devouring.

They turned out a bit drier than my later attempts, but were yummy all the same. Yum!