Most weeks we do our shopping on Saturdays after breakfast so often times I find myself completely stumped on what to make for breakfast on those mornings. Although we have some food left in the house, I never plan ahead enough to make a “real” meal. This week we had leftover apples and of the staples (eggs, milk, flour, etc) so I thought to make apple cinnamon muffins as a side to our eggs and hash browns. James was definitely missing the meat (standard), but we both ended up enjoying these muffins more than I originally thought. They also kept better than expected for 2 days after I made them which was a nice change from our weekday oatmeal routine.

The original recipe for this suggested to use 2 apples, but that seemed like a bit much considering how small the batch of batter was. I cut the recipe down to one apple and it was just fine. Also, I cut out a 1/4 cup of butter in the topping and it was perfect. The recipe makes quite a bit of topping, but use it all – it’s worth it.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins (makes 12)
Ingredients:

for muffin batter:
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced

for topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, very cold, cubed

Preheat oven to 400F. Line 12 muffin wells with papers and set aside.

To make the muffin batter, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and cinnamon in a bowl. Mix in oil, egg and milk and fold in apples. Evenly distribute batter between muffin wells, filling them 2/3 of the way full.

To make topping, whisk together sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl. With a pastry cutter, forks, or your hands, cut in butter until the mixture resembles crumbs. Spoon topping over the muffin batter, distributing it evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Recipe adapted from AllRecipes