Apple Cinnamon Muffins made with Honeycrisp Apple Wheat

As a kid, fruit desserts were not my favorite. The fruit dessert that ended up showing up the most was apple pie. I would pass it up a lot of time rather than have dessert. Give me chocolate or forget it! I remember apple pie most often at my grandma’s house. My grandmother took care of me during the day as both of my parents worked. If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times, oh how I wish I had developed my love for food and baking while my grandmother was alive. She was such an amazing cook. She was the type that didn't even use a recipe, she had just made it so many times she could do it by memory, by what it looked like, and felt like. She could make anything taste good. She could make fried bologna taste gourmet. I’m sure she could have passed on a lot of knowledge on to me if I was just willing to take it all in. If only…..

As an adult, of course, my palate has changed and I have to come to enjoy a world of different ingredients, apples being one of them. This recipe actually came together when I had purchased a beer that was just a little too sweet for me, but still had a great flavor. Yeah there's beer in there. Would grandma have approved? ;)

I love this time of year! It's so nice and cool outside and I love these warm flavors. Today as I baked these muffins I had all my windows open just airing out the house. The crisp cool air combined with the warm apple cinnamon scent wafting from my oven was just heaven. That in itself just made it a perfect day. I wish I could share a muffin with my grandma. I sometimes wonder what she would think of my baking.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins made with Honeycrisp Apple Wheat

For the muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

3/4 cups brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

2 cups diced apples (I used 3 medium gala, but you can use whatever you have)

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 egg, room temperature

1/4 cup butter, room temperature (half stick)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup Shock Top Honeycrisp Apple Wheat, room temperature (I used Shock Top, but if you have a different brand of apple beer, I'm sure it would work here too)

1 tsp vanilla

For the crumb topping

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup oats

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray a muffin tin with baking spray. (I use Bak-klene ZT no-stick bakery spray, it’s the best, it doesn't leave a sticky residue on my tins)

2.  In a large bowl whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Then toss in apples and pecans to coat.

3.  In a medium bowl whisk together egg, butter, oil, apple wheat, and vanilla.

4.   Add wet ingredients to flour mixture and stir until batter just comes together and the flour mixture absorbs all the wet ingredients, then fill muffin tin 3/4 of the way full and top with a heaping tablespoon of crumb topping mixture.

5.  To make crumb topping mixture just combine all ingredients in small bowl until all are incorporated.

6.  Bake muffins in preheated oven for 15-25 minutes (mine were perfect at 20 minutes), until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Healthy Trail Mix Muffins

Ok so sue me, I've hopped on the healthy wagon. Unfortunately I'm not one of those girls that is just naturally skinny, especially with all these yummy sweets around. I've tried cutting my portions in half, the 3 day diet, the grapefruit diet (talk about gross!), I've even tried the Atkins diet, way back when. None of them work! What I've found to work, and this is for me, is to cut my calorie intake, and throw in some daily exercise to tighten things up. Now this doesn't mean I am depriving myself of food, by not eating enough or by not eating what I like. I do this by taking a recipe I like and replacing it with healthier options. Now I'm not gonna lie! These muffins are not as good as their full fat, full sugar, all white flour counterpart, but they do the job by cutting the craving and cutting the calories. If these sound good and you're not watching your girlish figure feel free to use the good stuff! If you could use a few more of these "healthier" versions, then you are in luck! I've got this beautiful, talented friend, Randi, that cooks like this as her way of life. The other half and I usually go to her house for dinner every weekend. :) Anywho, she just started her own blog where she will be posting her yummy recipes along with her crafts and tips to get through the day as a busy mama. She even makes her own wreaths and will be selling them on etsy soon.

Isn't it beautiful!? Go visit her! 

Don't fret it won't all be the healthy kind around here, it's all good in moderation right? At least that's what I keep telling myself. Happy baking!

PS. If any of you guys have a good low cal recipe send it my way, I'd love to try it, and I'll be sure to give you all the credit. Email Me! 

PSS. I'd like to apologize if you don't see a comment that you may have left. I accidentally deleted a few of them one night while I was playing on my iPad. Unfortunately I wasn't able to recover them. So sorry!

Now onto what we're here for.....

Healthy Trail Mix Muffins 

Makes 12 muffins 

Ingredients 

· 1/4 cup ripe banana mashed 

· 1 tablespoon canola oil 

· 3/4 cup Splenda 

· 1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar blend 

· 2 eggs 

· 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour 

· 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 

· 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

· 1/4 teaspoon salt 

· 1 teaspoon vanilla 

· 1 teaspoon cinnamon 

· 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 

· 3/4 cup nonfat yogurt 

· 1/2 cup trail mix (I used a raw granola trail mix from Spouts) 

· Extra Splenda brown sugar blend and chopped pecans for topping (optional) 

Directions 

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper muffin liners and spray them with cooking spray. 

2. In a large bowl, stir together the banana, sugars, vanilla, yogurt and eggs. Combine the flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg; add to the wet mixture and mix well. Then fold in the trail mix. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Cups should be at least 3/4 full. 

3. Then sprinkle with Splenda brown sugar blend and chopped pecans. 

4. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until muffins spring back when touched lightly.

135 Calories - 4g Fat - 6g Sugar

Snickerdoodle Muffins

Oh boy, are these addicting! Honestly, I have never had a Snickerdoodle cookie before but if they are anything like these, count me in. They smell heavenly while baking, and fill the house with a warm comforting aroma. These little beauties come out of the oven very moist, (which is great for a muffin, because no frosting is involved) and they are perfectly sweet. Can you believe the other half wouldn't even try one? He’s on his diet/working out routine again. It’s probably better anyway, more for me. Although, I did have three the night I baked them so I decided to get out of the house and go to the gym before I ate number four. I wonder if those 40 minutes on the elliptical actually burned them off. I took the rest to work with me today and received the same reaction. I think my boss had at least three as well, every time I went into the break room I caught him sneaking another bite, made me feel better. :) You will have no problem making any friends if you make these babies. It’s pure unadulterated cinnamony sugar goodness. 

April Showers bring…..more baked deliciousness

The month of April was a busy one for me, but I made sure to get my fill of sugary confections. I also managed to gain back some of that lovely weight I had lost in March, go figure. Here in San Antonio we have a little festival in April we call Fiesta, which means plenty of alcohol and any kind of food on a stick you can think of. It’s a city wide party and it’s full of food, drinks, and events. 

A little history… 

Fiesta San Antonio started in 1891 as a one-parade event and has evolved today into one of this nation’s premier festivals with more than 100 events and an economic impact of almost $284 million for the city. Fiesta is “The Party with a Purpose.” Each event is produced by a nonprofit organization selected by the Fiesta® San Antonio Commission. The funds they raise provide services to San Antonio citizens throughout the year. 

If you are in the area in April and want to attend Fiesta or just want to read up on it here is the Official Fiesta Website. 

In honor of Fiesta I decided to bake something appropriate so I chose Cupcake Project’s Margarita Cupcakes. With tequila in the cake and the frosting this was a perfect fit.

While attending an event, the King Williams Fair, I managed to find the gourmet food trucks. One of the ones I have wanted to try out for a while was Saweet Cupcakes, and I’m so glad I did!  I tried the Belgian chocolate cupcake with the vanilla bean buttercream and it was amazing! Deep rich chocolate complemented by the creamy, smooth buttercream. Yum!

Before I fell off the wagon though, I did do a little healthy baking. I made whole wheat cranberry orange muffins, which I seemed to have misplaced the recipe, but will update you if I find it. The sweetness of the citrus and tartness of the cranberry compliment each other perfectly. If you are not trying to be healthy there are tons of great recipes out there for you to try. The next one I want to try is Ina Garten’s Cranberry Orange Scones.

April was great. Hope there is another sweet month ahead of me. :)

There's a first time for everything

I actually had to throw out a batch of blueberry muffins last night! They were not tasty at all! This is because I have been on the search of a perfect healthy baked good. (I know, I know, it’s kind of an oxymoron) I’ve realized this is a very hard task. You guys know I love my sweets, but the other half has been dieting and going to the gym along with P90X and I can’t leave him out. Why deny him of my tasty treats, although so far not so tasty. The first batch of muffins I made were whole wheat pumpkin muffins, they weren’t so bad, just not real sweet and pretty dense because of the whole wheat flour. This last batch of whole wheat blueberry muffins were awful, pretty inedible. So what’s a girl to do? Well I’m going to continue my search and keep experimenting, but I thought just maybe someone reading this might just have a good recipe.

This is what I’m looking for…

Sugar free (Splenda or honey)
Multigrain or whole wheat (No white flour)
Low to no oil
Dried fruit or nuts are good
Under 200 calories per serving
Fewer than 4g fat per serving
Low salt
High fiber

If anyone has any ideas, please email me. And I’ll keep everyone updated on the search. Now if we can all just share a moment of silence for the poor blueberry muffins…