The Ultimate Muffin

If you have seen my latest video on YouTube, or read my latest blog, you know that I've been cooking (and baking) a lot lately. While I don't have the time to make cooking (or baking) videos from it, I thought I could at least blog about some of the recipes and post photos.

So, prepare thy-selves for some recipe blog posts!

(I honestly don't know how I didn't think of this before...)

This one is about my discovery of the ultimate muffin.

I have been baking for most of my life and I briefly attended culinary school for it, before an injury caused me to leave. I don't pretend to know everything - heck, when I watch "The Great British Baking Show", I'm lost half the time with what they're even talking about. But I do know a lot of things - and one thing I know is that I've never been a huge fan of the Muffin.

Some extravagant ones are good - like Coffee Cake Muffins, or those fat greasy blueberry muffins...but let's be honest - while delicious, those aren't very healthy.

The other night, I discovered we had a couple of over-ripe bananas sitting on the counter, and as a baker, I don't like to let those go to waste. I had already made banana bread earlier that week, so I didn't want to do that again - and I also felt like putting another fruit in there, like apples.

I searched online for a banana apple muffin recipe, and found one that looked pretty good. I decreased the sugar in the recipe, since Mike and I aren't fans of super sweet things, and I figured both fruits would be sufficient for the sweetness of the muffin. I made the muffins, and MAN...these are the most amazing muffins ever. They're barely even muffins! They're more like a baked oatmeal thing with fruit inside.

I'm sharing this with you because you HAVE to try these. Only 8 grams of sugar per muffin, too! (Yes, I painstakingly did the math) That's not too shabby! The original recipe differs slightly, but I always tweak recipes to my liking. Below is exactly how I made them. This recipe makes 12. (Please ignore my weird random countertop things in the background - I like to drink coffee and snack while I bake, haha)

INGREDIENTS:

2 over-ripe bananas (mashed)

1 large egg

1/4 cup canola oil

1/3 cup low-fat milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

2 medium Gala apples (chopped)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cup quick oats

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup walnuts (chopped)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F) and line a muffin tin with paper cups.

2. In a large bowl (like the red one above) combine bananas, egg, milk, oil, sugar, and vanilla.

3. In another bowl (like the one on the left, above) whisk together the dry ingredients - flour, oats, baking powder, and cinnamon.

4. Core and chop apples, and chop walnuts - dusting both with flour (like pictured above)

5. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix well.

6. Fold apples and walnuts into mixture.

7. Spoon mixture evenly into baking cups (see photo above) and bake for 20-25 minutes until toothpick inserted into middles comes out clean.

8. Let pan cool on wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove muffins from pan and leave them to cool on wire rack.

If you try this recipe, leave a comment and let me know how it turned out! Personally, I'm going to be making these muffins a lot when I'm in the mood for something fruity and not super unhealthy. My original batch didn't even last a day in our house, haha.

In case you want to try it or compare, the link to the original recipe is: http://www.food.com/recipe/banana-apple-and-oatmeal-muffins