Cinnamon Apple Muffies

Cinnamon Apple MUFFIES?  Yes.  Not a muffin or a jumbo muffin, just one giant muffin top.  Because that’s the best part and the reason why we eat a muffin.  Am I right?!  Especially when it’s topped with buttery clumps of sugar like this one!  If you are fortunate enough to live in a town with Panera Bread (really called St. Louis Bread Company- that’s my home town!) you are probably familiar with this form/shape of muffin and love it.

So how do you get just the top of a muffin without chopping off the bottom?  Muffin Top Pans!  It’s a pan with wide shallow wells measuring about 4 inches x 1/2 inch.  These pans to make muffies or muffin tops, whatever you wanna call it, can be hard to come by but they do sell them at Bed Bath and Beyond as well as amazon. But if you don’t have a muffin pan, don’t worry, you can still make this recipe in regular muffin form.

When I was in high school I attended an early morning bible study class before school.  It started at 6:15 which meant I had to be up by 5:30 if I wanted to make it on time and look decent.  Luckily my hair never took long to do but there was still little time eat breakfast after sitting on my bed staring blankly at my clothes trying to gain consciousness as I figure out what to wear.  To help me out, every week my mom would make a different kind of muffie so that I could grab one (sometimes two– that was back when I could eat whatever I wanted and still stay the same size), a banana, and chocolate milk (made with homemade chocolate syrup) and run out the door.  I’d then scarf down my delicious breakfast next to my friends who would beg for a piece and suggest I start bringing extra.  Awe, the burdens of having everyone know how good of a cook my mom is.  

My mom never made these kind of muffies but since September= Apples, I thought it’d be perfect!

I’ve seen a few apple muffins that have large chunks of apples but I’m not a big fan of having a large hard apple in my soft muffin/muffie.  I learned in the Joy of Cooking that letting the apples sit with the egg and sugar helps to make the apples and muffin more tender.  It worked!  I chopped my apples really fine, like half the size of a pea, and then let them soak while I got everything else ready for the muffins.  The apples are so tender that they almost blend in with the soft crumb of the muffin.  Perfection.

The muffies are great with just the big streusel clusters but I thought “why not add a glaze?… a cream cheese glaze!”  Yum yum YUM!  By this point though it’s pretty much a dessert but since it’s in the muffin category it can pass as breakfast! 🙂  And I made my muffins with half whole wheat flour so that makes me feel a little better about eating it at 8am.  You can also substitute the butter in the muffin (not the streusel) with canola oil too if you want to make it a little healthier, but I think the butter flavor tastes best.

I can’t wait to share more yummy muffie recipes with you!  I might just have a giveaway with the next one! 😉  Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Cinnamon Apple Muffies

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time20 minutes mins

Servings: 12 muffies or 14 muffins

Author: Garnish and Glaze

Ingredients

For the Muffies/Muffins:

• ▢ 1 cup apples, finely chopped
• ▢ 1 egg
• ▢ 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
• ▢ 1/4 cup sugar
• ▢ 2 cups flour, I used half whole wheat flour
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ▢ 3/4 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• ▢ 1 cup buttermilk
• ▢ 1/2 cup 1 stick butter, melted

For the Streusel:

• ▢ 1/4 cup butter, melted
• ▢ 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
• ▢ 2/3 cup flour
• ▢ 1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the Glaze:

• ▢ 2 ounces cream cheese, very soft
• ▢ 2-3 tablespoon milk
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• ▢ 3/4 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

• Mix together apples, eggs, and sugars and set aside so they can soak and render their juices.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. If using muffie pans, grease wells with cooking spray or shortening. If making muffins, line pan with 14 paper liners or grease with cooking spray or shortening.
• Make the streusel by combining all streusel ingredients and mixing until clumpy. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg. Add the apple mixture, milk, and melted butter and mix until just combined.
• Spoon into muffie (about 1/4 cup) or muffin cups and then top with struesel. Bake for 8-10 minutes for muffies and 13-15 minutes for muffins until tooth pick comes out clean (careful not to over bake)
• While muffies bake, make the glaze by whisking all the glaze ingredients together. Add milk as needed to get desired drizzling consistency. Drizzle over the top of muffins when they come out of the oven.

Notes

You can make muffies or muffins or even both. I made 6 muffies and 6 muffins and put the in the oven at the same time and just pulled the muffies out when they were done and let the muffins cook a few minutes longer (as directed in the instructions).

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Recipe Source: Garnish & Glaze original recipe