Applesauce Spice Muffins

The work / school week started off with muffins and ended with muffins. We kicked off Monday with deep, dark and delicious Double Chocolate muffins and welcomed in Friday with the flavors of fall. These glorious little cakes are moist with applesauce and spiced with the flavors of cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg.

A wonderful way to ensure a moist crumb is to use applesauce whenever you can. There isn't a hint of dryness in these little babies! Plus, the apple flavor is truly heightened with the addition of all those "apple pie" spices we have loved since childhood.

I made these at 6 AM today and they were ready in 1/2 hour. So by my math, the prep time took no more than 10 minutes and they were baked to perfection in 20 minutes. To save yourself cleanup time, line your muffin cups with liners. These are parchment fluted liners but any muffin liner will work well. I love the parchment liners because they peel off so easily and are a nice change visually as well.

For this recipe, use unsweetened applesauce only. The sugar adds the required sweetness. I used a finer ground turbinado sugar for the batter and a coarse turbinado sugar for the topping. If you prefer, use a light brown sugar in the batter at a 1:1 ratio. The taste will pretty much be the same. Do not use white sugar. You will lose so much flavor if you go that route.

I like the texture and flavor of this brand
but any sugar free applesauce should do the trick

So are you ready? Let's get baking !

RECIPE:
*altered source recipe: Applesauce Spice Muffins, Epicurious.com

WHAT YOU NEED

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup turbinado sugar (not coarse ground)
1 stick (1/2 cup) plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup unsweetened applesauce

coarse turbinado sugar and cinnamon for topping

MAKE IT

PREHEAT oven to 400F
LINE 12 muffin cups with paper liners

IN LARGE BOWL, whisk together first 7 ingredients
IN MEDIUM BOWL, whisk together eggs and sugar
ADD butter and applesauce to egg mixture and whisk until thoroughly combined
FOLD wet ingredients into dry ingredients blending just until combined

USING your ice cream scoop, add one scoop of batter to each muffin cup
SPRINKLE tops with turbinado sugar and ground cinnamon
BAKE 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean

REMOVE immediately from muffin tray and place muffins on cooling rack

SUPERB WARM AND FRESH FROM THE OVEN !


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