Apple Muffins

What a fun summer we've had!!  It was filled with picnics, parks, friends, birthday parties, bike rides, family, evening walks, campfires, gardening, water parks, and an awesome trip to Jackson, WY.  I really didn't want all the fun to end.  But, alas, all good things must come to an end, I guess.  So, thanks for letting me take a vacation, but now I'm back and ready to start blogging once again.

One bad part about my summer was that my computer crashed.  Again.  But this time, zero of my pictures were saved.  So all those fifty-something recipe pictures I had ready to post?  They're gone.  All gone.  Bummer.  I guess I have some major cooking to do so that I can keep updating.  Shucks.  ;)

About a week ago, we were up at my in-law's having Sunday dinner.  My mother-in-law asked if I wanted any apples from her very well producing apple tree.  YES, PLEASE!  So, we took home a grocery sack filled to the brim with these DELICIOUS apples!  And as I said on Facebook today, they've been sitting on my counter begging me to bake with them.  So I now have a whole list of things I'd like to make using these yummy apples.

First on my list that I made today are apple muffins.  This recipe came from a roommate, Becky, my Freshman year of college.  I was always so impressed with Becky because when she cooked, she made some pretty amazing food.  Well, it looked pretty amazing compared to what I ate.  She used the oven to make things.  I usually ate carrot sticks and PB&J sandwiches.  I was very impressed.

These muffins were one of the things Becky made.  And she actually let me eat one (I believe it was because we were moving out and she wasn't taking them with her and she didn't want them to go to waste).  I thoroughly enjoyed it and asked for the recipe.

When I made these today, my kids have been snarfing them down.  SNARFING.

Here's what you'll need:

3C. flour

1 C. sugar

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 eggs

1 C. milk

1/2 C. oil

2 C. grated apples

Combine the first 5 ingredients.  In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, milk, and oil.  Beat well.  Set aside.  Get your apples ready.  I like to use my apple slicer, that way you cut out the core and you have small, manageable slices to peel.  Peel the skins then shred or dice.  Which ever you prefer.  I have an old Salad Shooter that I use to make shredding a breeze.

                                     

It's okay if your apples brown; they'er going into a brown batter.  No big deal.

Combine your wet and dry ingredients only until moistened, then gently stir in your apples.  You don't want to over mix the batter or else you'll end up with tough muffins.  You want them to be nice and tender.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Grease muffin tins (I like to use the baking spray with flour).  Scoop the muffin batter into the tins filling them 2/3 - 3/4 of the way full.  I just use one large cookie scoop per muffin.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, the recipe says.  I baked my on convection for 14 minutes.  So, just keep an eye on them and take them out when they start to turn golden brown.  Remove from the pan and cool on a cooling rack.

Then watch your kids snarf them all.  Next time I'll be doubling the batch!