Bake: Apple Muffins

Frequenting the farmer's market again, I decided to make use of the abundant supply of apples.  This recipe is good for standard muffins or mini muffins (but be careful, it's easy to over-indulge on the mini muffins!).




Apple Muffins
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 12 muffins plus 24 mini muffins

0.5 c butter, room temperature
0.5 c sugar
0.5 c brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
0.25 c vanilla low-fat yogurt
3 small granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Topping:
0.33 c brown sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp butter, cold, cubed
generous pinch of cinnamon

(1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees
(2) Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar together

(3) Add eggs, one at a time

(4) Add apples and yogurt

(5) In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

(6) Slowly add dry ingredients to apple mixture until combined
(7) Line muffin tins with paper liners

(8) Fill each container with batter
(9) Mix together ingredients for topping with a pastry blender or fork

(10) Sprinkle topping over each muffin

(11) Bake for 12-15 minutes until tops are caramelized and muffins are baked through (see notes below)

(12) Cool on a wire rack

Notes:  I used a food processor to chop the apples; the result is not as consistent as hand-dicing would be, but it's much faster.  To drop the batter into the muffin liners evenly and easily, I use an ice cream scoop.  When testing for doneness, insert a toothpick into the center of the muffin; if it comes out clean, the muffins are done.