Apple “Oat” Muffins
October 6, 2012 in Muffins and Coffee Cakes
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)
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease or line a muffin pan with silicone or paper muffin cups.
- Roughly chop almond slices for smaller pieces (aiming for rolled oat size).
- Mix eggs, applesauce and spices in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add chopped nuts and shredded coconut and stir to combine.
- Combine almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Stir into wet ingredients until fully incorporated. Fold in fresh apple pieces.
- Spoon batter into muffin tins, rounding out the tops. Bake for 30 minutes, until tops are starting to turn golden brown.
- Enjoy!
These look DELICIOUS! Oh how I wish I could eat them
these look really yummy but wondering how much I can get away with egg substitutes. 4 eggs is a lot to replace. I might try a combo of egg replacer and flax eggs.
This looks wonderful. We also went apple picking last weekend and ended up with too many. Will be trying this later today.
These look & sound wonderful! Do you think I could substitute coconut oil or butter for some of the applesauce..I like having items with a little more fat & less carb/sweetness (I have diabetes).. Thinking maybe 1/2-3/4 cup of oil for 1/2-3/4 cup of applesauce? Thanks for sharing
You could, but these aren’t that sweet to begin with. Maybe 1/4-1/2 cup?
Thanks ~ I’ll give it a try!
I just wanted to comment and agree that these aren’t very sweet – may be the apples I used. But they are good and I made mini-muffins for my daughter to take to school…she approved
Is it just 1 Apple?
yes
Hi Sarah,
Just found your blog in my research about the AI Protocol for Paleo. I currently eat a pretty strict paleo diet, but like you I make a lot of paleo baked goods and rely on nut meal or coconut flour and eggs. Just wondered how you mange to cook following the AIP especially for treats? I would love some inspiration if I’m going to start the protocol!
Thanks so much for an incredibly informative and engaging blog – I’m planning to go back and read through some of your scientific explanation posts now
Most of the treats I make, I don’t eat (except for a little nibble to make sure the recipe is blog-worthy). They are really for my kids. I tend to be fairly happy with fruit when I’m craving something sweet or spoons of coconut butter when I’m craving something fatty. It definitely requires more self discipline this way though!
Thank you for this recipe, I will be trying it! I have been busy over the past couple of weeks canning applesauce made from apples off of my grandmother’s tree. This will be a great way to use some of it. I, like you, did not add any sugar to my applesauce. I only added cinnamon and nutmeg.
I made this yesterday! Yummy!!!!! I added some honey to them because you mentioned they are not very sweet and they are for my kids (I ate 1 and so did my hubby) and you were right, even thou I love them just like that my girls asked for honey on top.
Forgot to say: Thank you for the great recipe!
I made a batch of these this morning and they are wonderful, reminiscent of morning glory muffins (could probably achieve something even more similar by adding some shredded carrot and dried fruit). I used my large Pampered Chef cookie scoop (~3Tbsp) to distribute the batter and was able to make 22 muffins (regular sized tin but more manageable serving for my kids). I found I still needed the 30 minute baking time as my chopped apple was quite large.
Thank You for sharing another winning recipe!
Just an update… my new favorite way to serve the apple “oat” muffins are to cut them in half horizontally and toast them up in a skillet after making our morning eggs (I prefer ghee as the fat for these). Perfect warm and caramelized addition to a chilly morning!
Oh holy cow, are these delicious! So soft and moist and . . . PERFECT. I didn’t add the walnuts and pecans and used cashew pieces instead of almond slices. My four-year old ate two. My hubby (who doesn’t like nuts or coconut and thinks that all Paleo baked goods are too dry and heavy) actually ate one and liked it. I ate two and am trying to stop myself from eating more. Thank you thank you thank you – these are amazing!
how many does this yield?
never mind; found the yield.