I am a firm believe in the healing power of food. Whenever anyone (that I like) gets some sort of medical percedure, I like to bring them something home cooked, weather it be dinner or a baked good, you know, so they don't have to worry about starving to death. ( no one I have ever visited was ever starving) Food helps you heal and food makes you happy so bringing a healing person some food only makes sense to me. So when the mr's aunt recently had part of her knee drilled out, cleaned out and stuffed with human cadaver bone marrow ( pretty cool)) I baked her, her husband, and her kiddos some muffins.
Why muffins? Well I was thinking soup or a casserole, but the mr suggests I do a baked good instead. I was going to go with a cake, but then that can get kind of annoying and troublesome with a couple of kids. Cupcakes are to cheesy and don't send the right message of get well, (cupcakes say, run around.. sugar high!), a pie would have been nice, but I am not sure if the kids like pie. Then there are muffins.. muffins are perfect. Not terribly packed full of sugars and crap. A little more hearty, can be eaten as a snack, a dessert, or a quick breakfast, and keep for a good while. I made them apple cause I gots a shit ton of apple and peanut butter cause protein is good and it just makes sense.
Apple+peanut butter are BFF's and really, what human doesn't like peanut butter?
So his aunt and family got the muffins, and the mr only got 1. I think he was really disappointed that I didn't save him another one or make more.
Oh well. I guess I can make them again, if he is lucky.
And I feel like I should say get we'll soon Sarrh, but this last is a badass and is already doing great,so I will just say, Hi Sarah, looking good!
Now to the muffins!
The stuff. Dry ingredients are flour, baking packing soda cinnamon and salt. Then we have applesauce, breon sugar, oil, vanilla extract and vinegar. For the streusel.... peanut butter, brown sugar, flour, salt and earth balance. (you could use butter if you want)
The streusel stuff goes into a bowl and gets mixed until it turns into a crumbly, soft dough and set aside.
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in one bowl, then in another bowl, mix together he applesauce, oil, vanilla, sugar and lastly, the vinegar.
Fold the wet into the dry, mixing just enough until incorporated. And remember….DON"T OVERMIX!
Now scoop batter into muffin pans. Use liners, or not… I usually don't but figured that lined muffins travel and keep a little better… plus I just found a bunch when I was cleaning out a kitchen drawer.
Streusel top those muffins!
A view from the side… Use it all, don't be shy, the crumble is there to be eaten… Oh, and lesson learned by me. Next time I make these I will give the streusel a little pat into each muffin, to really secure it to the tops. So yeah, you should do that.
Now into the ove they go!
Pull out to cool when the streusel is browned, the muffins are poofed, and a tester poked comes out clean.
The smell alone will make your mouth water and you tummy growl.
A muffin win!
Happy Friday! Do lots of fun fall stuff this weekend!
-C
Apple Muffin with Peanut Butter Streusel
Makes 12 muffins
Muffin Stuff
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 cups applesauce* (recipe here)
- 2/3 cups brown sugar
- 1/2 cup oil
- 2 tablespoons apple-cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Peanut Butter Streusel Stuff
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/3 cup peanut butter
- 3 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons earth balance
* IF you are using homemade applesauce (you should!) A little chunky is good. Just make sure that there are no huge chunks. Also, if you applesauce is really thick, just add a bit of water to think it would. It doesn't have to be pourable, but it should have a bit of water content to it.
Turn oven on to 350 and either grease or line a 12 hole muffin pan
In a bowl, combine all of the streusel stuff unit it becomes a kind of crumbly dough and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, mix together the applesauce,, brown sugar, oil, vanilla,, and vinegar. Pour the wet into the dry and fold in until just fully incorporated, br careful to not over mix the batter.
Scoop equal amounts of batter into you muffin tin. Grab the streusel l topping and evenly distipute that all over the muffins, giving the topping a soft pat to make sure it stays put while baking.
Place muffins in oven and bake for about 30 ish minutes, or unlit the streusel is browning, the muffins are poofy and a test comes out clean.
Remove from oven, pop muffins from tin, and let cool on a rack.
Serve as soon as you want. A glass of milk (plan, nut or cow) or a big old cup of joe goes really well with this muffin situation.