Apple Muffins

I've never been much of a baker, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I don't try my hand at baking.  For example, I do make some mean Pillsbury funfetti cupcakes!  Now I know this does't really count as "baking" per se, but they do taste pretty darn good! My last "real" attempt at baking was this past Christmas when I tried to bake homemade french bread for a family gathering.  I ended up accidentally killing the yeast cultures (water was too warm), and presenting an unleavened Christmas french bread that looked and felt more like a baseball bat than a Parisian loaf!

The other day Daniel perfectly articulated my quandary with baking - I'm always striving to make healthy dishes, and he claims that baking was never meant to be healthy! We'll see about that...when I bake I'm always attempting to incorporate spelt and whole wheat flowers and to minimize the sugar (often negating it altogether and neglecting to substitute anything for it!)...  This leaves me with unsweetened and funny tasting "treats" that Daniel tries and says "hmmm... perhaps next time you could add a little more sugar...?"

This week I discovered a recipe for Apple Oatmeal muffins that does not even call for sugar!  Now that's my kind of muffin... well, or so I thought, until Daniel tried a bite and asked if I forgot the sugar.  Shoot.  So I tried again and modified the recipe.  While they aren't your cupcake-style muffin you find at Starbucks, they turned out pretty good and have been a great quick breakfast or post-run snack.  Let me know what you think!


Apple Muffins

Dry Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup oats (I've tried it with slow-cook and quick oats - both work great)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar (Daniel highly recommends a 1/4 cup!)

Wet Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 pear - cored and peeled
• 1/2 apple - cored and peeled

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Sift the first six dry ingredients together.  Stir the oats into the dry ingredients.  

In a food processor or blender, puree the pear and apple.  Then stir in the egg, ricotta cheese, and almond milk.  Add the sugar to the egg/apple mixture and lightly mix together.  

Add the egg/apple mixture to the dry ingredients.  Pour into greased or lined muffin tins.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Refrigerate any leftover muffins.

** This recipe was adapted from the blog Smitten Kitchen