Apple Spice Muffins

I am an Impatient Baker. I rarely bake anything because I usually don’t have the patience to measure precisely, which is very important for baking because the wrong proportion of flour to liquid can result in a goopy mess that splatters all over the oven or burns up like a piece of kindling. I also used to have the bad habit of opening the oven door every few minutes to peek inside because I was always paranoid that the cake wouldn’t rise or the cookies were burning up. Of course, opening the oven door that much lowered the temperature so the food didn’t cook properly anyway. It took me a while to make that connection because I’m also a Slow Baker. But I did, eventually, figure it out. These days, I’m a Happy Baker because the oven I use now has a window in the door, so I can monitor the progress of my baking without affecting the temperature. And lo and behold, the cakes always rise and the cookies rarely burn up so I need to learn how to relax a little when I pop stuff into the oven. I like this recipe for apple spice muffins because it’s pretty foolproof as long as you follow the directions. I always use whatever apples I happen to have on hand so use your favorite. I usually have Macs or Galas but any kind will taste good.

APPLE SPICE MUFFINS

3 apples, peeled and finely diced
3 cups of flour
1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup milk
2 eggs
2/3 cup butter, melted and then cooled (it should still be liquid)
2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup quick cook oats
1/4 cup dark brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and butter. Pour over the flour mixture, stirring constantly until well incorporated.

Stir in the apples.

Put paper or foil liners into the muffin cups. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, until each is about 3/4 filled. I use 2 baking pans that make 6 jumbo muffins each. You can also use 2 regular sized muffin pans that make 12 muffins each.

In a small bowl, use a fork to mix together the cold butter, oats and sugar. Spread a spoonful of the sugar mixture on top of the batter in each muffin cup.

Bake for 25-35 minutes. Regular sized muffins will be ready after 25-30 minutes. Jumbo muffins will be ready after 35 minutes. You’ll know they’re ready when a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out fairly clean.

Makes 12 jumbo muffins or 24 regular muffins.