Apple Muffins

I made apple muffins with my niece who visited recently. She is eleven years old and very excited about cooking. Her family visits every year and I usually have an array of breakfast things to feed them but this particular morning, I had nothing really of interest. I thought I would head to the store before they all woke up but then I remembered this recipe and I had some leftover apples. I got the recipe from King Arthur Flour web site but I  tweaked it quite a bit! It was great fun making these muffins with my niece and I look forward to their next visit when we can "play" in the kitchen again.

Scraping the bowl is an important step in mixing the batter!

We filled these muffin tins quite a bit as there is not a lot of rising in the oven.

Yummy muffins! This breakfast got people out of bed.
 Here is the recipe. Find an enthusiastic eleven year old and enjoy!

Apple Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
2 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. grease and flour 12 cup muffin tin or line with papers.


2. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and a 1/2 cup of the dark brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix in the buttermilk gently. stir in the dry ingredients. and fold in the apple chunks.

3. Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the tops with the remaining brown sugar. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out with a few crumbs attached. Remove from oven, cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin then remove muffin into a rack to cool completely.
Yields 12 muffins