Apple Cinnamon Muffins

I’m still pretty freakin’ excited about my two day-old niece, Liana.  I think people at my clinical may be a little (okay, a lot) sick of me showing them pictures and talking about how much I want to pinch her chubby cheeks.

I’m a woman obsessed.

Anyway, I’m forcing myself to move on and talk about other things–at least until next weekend, when I go visit.

So until then, feast on these.

Apple cinnamon muffins–made with half whole-wheat flour, filled with sweet apple pieces and perfectly finished with a crunchy sugar topping.  These are seriously really good.  I love anything apple-cinnamon flavored (real apple and cinnamon, that is–no lollipops or anything), and the sugar top just puts them over the edge.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins (adapted from Cooking for Seven)

• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 1 C whole-wheat flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 T cinnamon
• 1/2 C butter at room temperature
• 1 C brown sugar, divided (3/4 C and 1/4 C)
• 1 egg
• 1 C plain yogurt (I used fat-free)
• 3 small or 2 large apples, peeled, cored, and chopped

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and line a muffin tin with paper liners. I actually made these into mini muffins (the better for sharing), with two big muffins leftover.

Cream the butter and 3/4 C of sugar together in the mixer bowl until fluffy, then add the egg and beat ’til well combined.

Gently mix in the yogurt.

Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and flour, and mix until just combined.

Stir in the apple pieces.

Gosh, I love when the batter tastes so good you know right away the muffins will be a success.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin tins.  It was a teensy bit difficult to get even amounts of apple pieces and batter into the little cups, but it just took a small amount of nudging around with a spoon.  Much easier with the big muffins!

Top the muffins with the remaining brown sugar–it’ll be a nice, thick coat.

Bake on the middle rack for 5-10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 400 and continue to back until an inserted toothpick comes out dry, an additional 5 minutes or so.

I don’t know if it was the high baking temperature or what, but I was crazy about the sugar crust that formed on top!

Very satisfying to bite through.

Combine that with sweet and warm cooked apple, and this is the perfect fall spring treat.

I’ll probably make it double as often in the fall, when my apple craving goes stratospheric.

Stratospheric–that’s for you, Mom! (She’s a science teacher).

Also, I thought I’d share with you one of my other favorite things–when Henry goes into what we call “crack mode”. Usually around when we want to go to bed, he randomly starts twitching and contorting his body, frenetically rubbing the top of his head against any surface he can find.  Once that phase passes, he starts chasing after Fritz, trying to bite off chunks of his flesh in what he apparently finds to be a very amusing game.  I am never the target, but he will leap over tall buildings, sneak under the couch, or hide in wait to get his teeth into Fritz–preferably his ankles.

The only thing that will stop him is if I intervene.  Fritz can yell, run, swat, spray–anything he has tried has never worked.  And I’ll admit it–I hiss at him one time, and he stops. Kind of emasculating for Fritz.

Five minutes after this phase has started, it’s over.  By then, Fritz is usually in bed, and Henry comes sauntering in, purring, as if Mr. Hyde never made an appearance.  He curls up on Fritz’s lap (never mine), and Fritz forgives him.

Until the next night. So if you see the above seizure-like paroxysm…run.