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 probably freeze them.  It only takes a few minutes to defrost a muffin, especially if you slice or quarter it!

This recipe makes 18-20 muffins.  I know, that’s a lot. But you’ll make a whole lot of people happy! Or, you can make yourself happy for a long, long time by secretly freezing some of the muffins for later 🙂

Cracked Sugar Pumpkin-Apple Muffins

INGREDIENTS

For the muffins

• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice—if you are out of pumpkin pie spice, as I was, use ¾ teaspoon ground ginger plus ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg, plus scant ½ teaspoon ground cloves OR allspice,  instead of the 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 apple, peeled, cored and chopped—about 2 apples

For the cracked sugar topping

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup white sugar
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 teaspoons butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, sift together 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, pumpkin and oil.
4. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stirring just to moisten. Fold in apples.
5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
6. 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)
7. 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!