I love a good muffin. But they are often a bit high in calories and a bit low in nutrients. If they are long in nutrients than they are often short on taste. Well, not these lovely little gems. I used this recipe as my inspiration (check out this web site, they have a bunch of really great recipes!) and made a few minimal changes. These are hearty, filling and so yummy! Did I mention they are made using shredded zucchini? I will often make muffins to put in school lunch bags/boxes for their snack or side to replace the ho-hum and non-nutritious chips or goldfish or granola bar…etc. Don’t get me wrong these are fine on occasion, but variety is good and if we can find a better more nutritious option than lets do it. These also freeze really well, so you can make a batch or two, freeze them, then pull one out and throw it in the lunch bag/box…they will thaw by lunch time. This will also help keep everything else good and cold too. (pssst, I do this with sandwiches too).
Combine dry ingredients. I am all about minimizing steps, but when making quick bread-like things its always best to avoid over mixing once the wet and dry ingredients combined.
Combine all the wet ingredients (expect melted butter). Tip** if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can always make your own: 1 cup milk +1Tbsp Vinegar or lemon juice. Mix together and let stand for about 5 mins.
Gently add the wet to the dry ingredients and mix, just enough to combine everything. (careful not to over mix). This is also where I add the melted butter. I use melted butter because I think it tastes better in baked goods than oil and I am only using 1 Tbsp. Why add it now? Well, if I added the melted butter to cold wet ingredients, I would have solid pieces of cold butter floating on top of my buttermilk…I have found this is very hard to evenly mix in. Here is where I grate a medium zucchini and apple into the bowl. This is a fairly dry muffin mixture, but the apple and zucc really help increase moisture.
Combine, but don’t over mix. Have I said that? (these can be a little dense on their own, so over mixing will make them even more dense. That’s why I am being so annoying about this point 🙂 )
Because I like portion size and these are mainly for my kiddos (smaller muffins) I use a heaping TBSP to put them into the paper liner. I would encourage you to use paper liners because these are lower in fat and they tend to stick. So better a little bit of the muffin sticks to the paper then trying to pry them out of a muffin tin.
Because the actual muffin recipe has limited sugar, adding a little cinnamon and sugar to the top before baking creates a delicious slightly crunchy crust that feels very decadent!
Yum! I hope you Enjoy it!
- 2¼ cups white whole wheat flour
- ⅓ cup dark brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 tablespoon melted butter ( you can also use: melted coconut oil, canola oil, or vegetable oil)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 small-med apple grated (I used fuji)
- 1 small-med grated zucchini
- For the Topping:
- 2 tablespoons white cane sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners or generously greese muffin tins (these pups will stick)
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and all-spice.
- In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, applesauce, egg, and vanilla extract.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add melted butter during mixing. Do not over mix, Sorry I keep saying this, but I don't want you to have tough little muffins. I just don't want that for you.
- Grate apple and zucchini into mixing bowl and gently fold in.
- For topping: combine white cane sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Stir well.
- Fill each muffin cup with about 1 heaping TBSP of muffin batter. Sprinkle each muffin with about 1- 1½ tsp cinnamon sugar topping.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Let muffins cool to room temperature and serve or freeze.
P.S. If you want to learn more about the health benefits of apples, check this 34 Science-backed Health Benefits of Apples by WellbeingSecrets.com, it’s a fantastic resource!
