Pumpkin isn’t only for October and November you know. I hope you have an extra can or two of pumpkin puree on hand for the other ten months of the year. This isn’t a pumpkin muffin, and it isn’t an apple muffin, it’s a bit of both, so it should please everyone. I like the pumpkin, I like the diced apple, but I especially like the cracked sugar on top!
These muffins stay moist and tasty for at least three days. I’ve never had one around longer than three days, so I don’t know what happens on day four or five. (If I had expected to have extras around that long, I’d freeze them. It only takes a few minutes to defrost a muffin, especially if you slice or quarter it.)
In muffin recipes I often substitute half the oil in the recipe for applesauce. Oddly, it doesn’t work well in this muffin. The texture suffers quite a bit. If you are out of Pumpkin pie spice, as I am, use ¾ teaspoon ginger plus ½ teaspoon nutmeg, plus scant ½ teaspoon ground cloves OR allspice, instead of the 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice.
This recipe makes 18-20 muffins. I know that’s a lot. But you’ll make a lot of people happy!
Cracked Sugar Pumpkin-Apple Muffins
For the muffins
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
½ cup vegetable oil (or ¼ cup oil plus ¼ cup applesauce)
2 cups peeled, cored and chopped apple (about 2 apples)
For the cracked sugar topping
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ cup white sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons butter
Preheat oven to 350º. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.
In a large bowl, sift together 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt.
In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, pumpkin and oil.
Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stirring just to moisten. Fold in apples.
Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons flour, ¼ cup sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle topping evenly over muffin batter (about 1 teaspoon of topping per muffin)
Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today! I hope I’ll see you again tomorrow!
