Fall is my favorite time of year and one of the best days is when I see the message from the local orchard that the Honeycrisp are ready! When I chose my recipe for this month's Muffin Monday I knew it would be something with apples.
I chose Caramel Apple Muffins from Taste of Home and it's a standard dry mix to start off. Flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, spices.
I reduced the amount of cinnamon called for to 1 1/2 teaspoons and used my Microplane to grate in a nice amount of nutmeg. I didn't measure, maybe 1/2 teaspoon?
The wet ingredients are milk, egg, melted butter and vanilla. I melted the butter in a glass bowl and let it cool slightly before whisking the other ingredients into it.
For the caramel, you can use the candies that you have to unwrap but I like these bite sized bits. Be advised that the recipe says to eat the muffins warm because the caramels will reharden when cool. If you'd like caramel flavor without that issue, you can use extract.
Depending on the size of your apples you may need more than one but mine were huge so one was plenty.
I diced them about the same size as the caramel bits. Normally I'd toss add ins with some of the flour from the recipe but I forgot this time.
I used a large scoop and filled the tins to the top and because of that I only got 11 muffins. I sprinkled on a few more caramel bits on each one.
Next up, the streusel. More melted butter (not pictured), brown sugar, quick cooking oats and cinnamon.
I stirred it together with a fork and then sprinkled it on top of the muffins.
My muffins took about 22 minutes on convection. I let them cool slightly and then removed them to a wire rack to let them cool all the way.
I love the topping because it was very similar to apple crisp. If you wanted to up the caramel flavor a bit more you could do a drizzle of ice cream sundae syrup over the top.
Thanks so much to Stacy for hosting #MuffinMonday and to all the other awesome bloggers who
shared recipes today, be sure to go check out what they made using the links down below!
Caramel Apple Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chopped peeled tart apple
- 12 caramels, chopped (or reduce amount of vanilla to 1t and use 1t caramel extract)*
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. In another bowl, whisk the egg, milk, butter and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in apple and caramels bits.
- Fill 12 paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Combine topping ingredients; sprinkle over batter.
- Bake at 350° until a toothpick inserted in the cake portion comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm.
Notes
The caramels will re-harden when cool. If you'd like caramel flavor without that issue, you can use extract.
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#MuffinMonday
is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake
muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.
Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin
Monday, can be found on our home page.
- Banana Avocado Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
- Blueberry Cornbread Muffins from Food Lust People Love
- Caramel Apple Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
- Molasses Bran Muffins with Cherries from Karen's Kitchen Stories
Your muffins look like the perfect taste of autumn, Jolene! Me: *putting caramel bits on shopping list*
ReplyDeleteHi Jolene, wow we're on the same wavelength with a caramel apple muffin recipe. I have one coming up in October for a National Apple Month recipe. My recipe is similar, but not exactly the same as this one. Those little caramel bits are so good, I have to keep my kids from eating them straight out of the bag. lol I love your streusel topping, I wish I could grab one of these right now to have with my coffee! Delicious!
ReplyDeleteOooo, I've never had a chance to try out the little bits! I do love fresh ground nutmeg, there is no comparison with pre-ground. (It's not in your ingredient list?) Definitely adds fantastic donutty flavor! These muffins look a treat and a half!
ReplyDeleteAs it so happens, I have a bag of those caramel bits just getting past their "sell by" date and I need to use them! Your muffins (and that streusel!) sound amazing.
ReplyDelete