I’m interrupting the regularly scheduled Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge programming to share with you my new favorite muffin recipe. Because it’s January. And we are all, or almost all, trying to get back into our pre-November sized jeans.
What, you say? Then why are you sharing a muffin recipe, of all things??? Muffins are filled with fat and sugar, not lettuce and skinless, grilled chicken breasts! Well, this is where things get interesting. (No, this muffin recipe most definitely does not have lettuce or chicken breasts in it. But this tender, sweet, tasty muffin also does not have much fat or sugar, and it will keep you feeling full and happy until lunchtime.)
Sometimes a breakfast muffin promises so much and delivers so little, really. It either is the size of a basketball (and no matter how you try to eat only a third of it, you still manage to polish it off, picking at it while it sits on your desk until it’s gone) and it lands in your stomach like a very heavy basketball, or it is a tasteless ball of sawdust, albeit a low-fat ball of sawdust.
This muffin does neither of those things. This muffin recipe is from Ellie Krieger, the Food Network queen of healthy cooking. And I wouldn’t be writing about it if it wasn’t one of the best apple muffins I have ever had, low-fat, full-fat, or otherwise. Really. Ellie has solved the how-to-make-a delicious-healthy-muffin dilemma for me. Do you see that little bit of brown sugar-pecan crumb topping? Yum.
There are a couple of tricks to this muffin. Go out and buy whole-wheat pastry flour at your local health food store or Whole Foods or Central Market. It is worth it. I’ll be sharing other muffin recipes soon, also using whole-wheat pastry flour, so it will be sure to get used and not sit idly by in your pantry. (The original recipe says you can substitute regular whole-wheat flour. DON’T DO IT! You will be disappointed. Your muffin will not be as tender. It will instead remind you of the dreaded “healthy” muffins.) And when you measure the flours for the recipe, make sure you spoon the flour into the measuring cup before you level it off. If you scoop and then level, you will be compacting it, using too much flour, and again, you will have a leaden crumb. No need for that. Fair warning.
Apple Pecan Muffins
(from Ellie Krieger)
Ingredients
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup natural applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 Golden Delicious apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a muffin pan with cooking spray or very lightly oil it. In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar, the pecans and cinnamon. In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, the baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, whisk the remaining 3/4 cup brown sugar and the canola oil until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in the applesauce and vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined. Gently stir in the apple chunks. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pecan mixture. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.
Once they are cool, you can wrap them individually and freeze them. That way, you can always have a breakfast muffin at the ready, either by taking one out the night before or by zapping one in the microwave for about 15 seconds.
