They’re not too sweet, so beware, sweets lovers, this one’s a light-yet-cake-y muffin that’s incredibly healthy and yummy! They would have been sweeter- and tastier- with the raisins I had planned to put in… but forgot. Oops! That said, even without them, they’re a delicious snack to have in your bag, for breakfast, or at I’ve often used them, concert food!

Most muffin recipes use a ton of sour cream and butter, and I’ve found that to be downright silly. Why make an unhealthy muffin when it could be far healthier? I mixed and matched flours here to experiment with texture, but feel free to simplify by using all whole-wheat regular flour (not a mix of pastry and regular). You can also completely remove the sour cream in favour of applesauce only- I’ve done this many times before and the result is great. I was just curious to see if I could get a heartier muffin, since mine tend to be very light and fluffy. If you’re opting for a vegan and virtually fat-free muffin, replace the eggs with pumpkin puree (thanks, Sasha, for the tip!)- I’d suggest 1/4 cup per egg- and replace all the sour cream for applesauce. This recipe started as one from Emeril but I found it to not be quite healthy enough and am always changing things anyway (I have a few variations already up on fruippe: 1 & 2)

Whole Wheat Low-Fat Cinnamon Apple Muffins

Ingredients- makes approx. 12 large muffins and 8-10 mini muffins:

• 2 large apples (golden delicious or granny smith are best), peeled, cored, cut into about 3/4-inch chunks (sizes and shapes can vary)
• 1 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup 100% whole wheat flour
• 1.5 slightly-heaping teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup low-fat sour cream (or applesauce)
• 3 large eggs (or 3/4 cup pumpkin puree)
• 3/4 cup all-natural applesauce
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2.5 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 – 2/3 cup black sweet raisins or sultanas (optional)
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Process:

1. Preheat the oven to 370 degrees farenheit and butter a large muffin tin. Set cupcake liners into a mini muffin tin (or butter- your preference). Use soy butter for a healthier alternative!
2. Mix together dry ingredients (flour, salt, spices, baking powder and soda) in a small mixing bowl and set aside. You can sift this if you’d like to introduce more air into the mixture but the applesauce substitution will usually do that work for you!
3. Whisk together the eggs, sour cream (if you opted to use any), apple sauce, and vanilla in a second bowl until just combined. Then whisk in the sugar very lightly- again, less is more here (take a Charmin approach)
4. Add the dry mixture in 3 batches each time mixing in until just combined.
5. Then fold in the apples, raisins, and nuts, until fairly evenly distributed, but again being careful not to overmix.
6. Pour the batter into the tins and muffin cups and put into the oven.
7. The large muffins take about 20 minutes to bake; the small muffins take closer to 15 minutes.
8. Remove the muffins from the oven, let sit inside the tins for 5 minutes or until slightly cooled, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.

 These guys are perfect for gifts, snacks, and more. They’re very simple to make, and you can make countless variations. The boyfriend loves when I substitute the apple for banana and add in almond and walnut chunks, and substitute almond extract for vanilla extract. You can switch around to a variety of fruit and nut combinations. A fun version for fall could be cranberry and pecan! Try out whatever you like best :)

Backpost: I’ve been continually working to update the  muffin recipe that originated as one from Emeril but since has little in common. I’ve now substituted all butter for applesauce- and trust me, you can hardly tell (my next goal is to home-make all the applesauce so that these guys are 100% organic), and they are virtually organic, whole wheat, close to fat-free muffins. Yeah, you didn’t think it was possible, did you? Neither did I, and therein lies the beauty of it. But I’m now very close to perfecting these, and the wonderful thing about it is is that anythign can go in them! Though these are apple-cinnamon-raisin, I’ve also made banana-walnut-almond, and plan to make many more in a wide variety of flavours. I’m very surprised Austin has no commercially-available (to my knowledge- please correct me if you’ve found any!) whole wheat, organic, insanely low-fat muffins. I’d also like to try making a vegan variety, but the eggs have me stumped… and I can’t think of an egg substitute. But all things in due time! For now, these are a winner. I’ve brought them to work, parties, friends’ apartments… they get gobbled! How do your muffins fare?

Some notes:

• I tried cupcake liners on these and, actually, they weren’t at all helpful. Maybe for the tiny ones, if for no other reason than the fact that my mini muffin pan sticks very easily and thus it’s difficult to coax the muffins out, but if not, I’d actually just lightly grease the pan and put the batter right in!
• The more applesauce you subtitute for butter, the lighter and airier these get- but certainly not to a point of crumbliness, or of no longer being a good snack! You can substitute the butter out fully with confidence- particualrly if you’re adding fruit or other ingredients to the batter to give it some more texture and definition.
• I’ve found streusel toppings to often be the fattiest part of the muffin so… just forgo it! Your muffin will be more portable- and healthier- without it.
• When I made these with smaller apple chunks, no one could tell they were there. The apples will reduce in size during the cooking process, so don’t be alarmed if your apple chunks seem a bit on the, well, chunky side- they’ll become smaller as they bake and it will keep a nice delicious crunch to your muffin.
• Though cupcakes may be the “it” thing to bring to gatherings and parties now, I’d like to contend that a big box of home-made muffins would be equally yummy, and far less guilt-inducing!
• My friend Sasha has informed me that pumpkin puree makes for a good egg substitute. In my next iteration of these, I’ll make that substitution and post regarding the results.

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!