Apple “Oat” Muffins

When our family went to pick apples at a local apple orchard this year, we made the same miscalculation we always make.  Three pecks of apples doesn’t look like that many in the big open space of the orchard, but boy, does it every look like a lot of apples once you get them home!  I had five fruit bowls on my dining room table until I eventually made a giant batch of applesauce for the freezer.

Apple is one of the flavors I associate with fall.  And these muffins have a wonderful robust apple flavor and a texture reminiscent of oat muffins.

These muffins are best made with thick homemade applesauce, but unsweetened store-bought applesauce will do.  If your applesauce is already seasoned, you may want to pull back on the spices in this recipe (the only ingredient in my homemade apple sauce is apples).  Applesauce and fresh chopped apple are the only source of sweetener in this recipe!, so I suggest choosing  sweeter varieties for making your homemade apple sauce (I used a mixture of mutsu and golden delicious for my apple sauce).  For the fresh chopped apple, any good cooking apple will work (I used fuji).  The best sweet varieties of cooking apples are fuji, mutsu (aka crispin) and rome beauty.  Granny smith are also a great cooking variety but pack a bit of a tangier punch.

I have also become very fond of my silicone muffin pan and silicone muffin cups.  One of the other make baking Paleo muffins so much easier.  These muffins hold together well enough that a greased muffin pan will also work.  You could also use paper liners.  Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 cups applesauce
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup blanched almond flour or almond meal
• 1/3 cup coconut flour, sifted
• 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
• ½ cup shredded coconut
• 2/3 cups sliced almonds
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp cloves
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 fresh cooking apple, cut into small ¼” pieces (you could also substitute raisins)

 

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease or line a muffin pan with silicone or paper muffin cups.
2. Roughly chop almond slices for smaller pieces (aiming for rolled oat size).
3. Mix eggs, applesauce and spices in a large bowl.  Stir to combine.  Add chopped nuts and shredded coconut and stir to combine.
4. Combine almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt.  Stir into wet ingredients until fully incorporated.  Fold in fresh apple pieces.
5. Spoon batter into muffin tins, rounding out the tops.  Bake for 30 minutes, until tops are starting to turn golden brown.
6. Enjoy!