Breakfast, Healthy SweetsShawna GuttmanDecember 11, 2014Muffin, Breakfast, fall2 Comments

Apple Pumpkin Muffins

Breakfast, Healthy SweetsShawna GuttmanDecember 11, 2014Muffin, Breakfast, fall2 Comments

I had an awesome opportunity this past weekend to teach a “Healthy Holiday Eats” cooking class! This class was organized by the Philadelphia Dietetic Association and the St. James Episcopal Church. The theme of the class was taking classic recipes and altering them slightly to make them lighter in calories but still full in flavor. The point that I really wanted the participants to take home is that eating healthy doesn’t mean going on a diet. Sometimes it just means cutting out some of the extras or modifying recipes so they are lower in fat or sugar. Little changes can lead to big results. I have the perfect example; a good friend of mine told me that her sister, who has been battling her weight, has recently lost almost 40lbs! All she did was decrease her portion sizes, stopped adding extras like butter and increased her workout routine by 15 minutes.

This next recipe was created to celebrate my friend’s sister! I learned that what she misses most are sweet breakfast treats. So I have created a wonderful Apple Pumpkin Muffin that is low in fat and sugar yet high in fiber. It can be eaten in the morning as a sweet breakfast treat or as a dessert. I have made little substitutions in this recipe such as using whole wheat and oat flours to increase the fiber content and apple sauce instead of butter. These seem like insignificant changes but when they add up, you get a much more wholesome result!

I hope you enjoy eating these as much as I enjoyed making them!

Ingredients:

1 cup wheat flour (unbleached, with Germ)
½ cup oat bran (fine)
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
¾ tsp nutmeg
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup almond milk
¾ cup unsweetened apple sauce, unsweetened
1 cup pureed pumpkin
¼ cup of honey
½ large apple cut into small cubes

Topping:

½ cup sliced almonds
1 TBS granulated sugar

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a muffin pan with oil or oil spray. Set aside.
Combine the crushed almonds and 1 TBS granulated sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
Place all of the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Wisk through to ensure the ingredients are well combined.
Place all of the wet ingredients in a large sized bowl. Wisk together until well combined.
Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, whisking continuously to combine.
When the batter is just combined, fold in the apples.
Use a 1/3 measuring cup to scoop the batter into the muffin pan. Top each muffin with a sprinkle of the almond sugar mixture.
Place the muffins in the 350 degree oven on the middle rack. Bake for 35-45 minutes. The muffins are done when a toothpick is inserted and comes out clean.
Allow the muffins to cool before removing from the pan.

Yield: 12 Muffins

Serving Size: 1 Muffin