Do you know the muffin man?

I have deep love for baking and eating muffins, however, I often find them somewhat difficult to work into a healthful diet. A homemade muffin is not big enough on its own to be breakfast, but when paired with cereal becomes almost too much. I do find when I'm organized enough to have a low-fat muffin with me at school, they make a nice snack while my students imbibe goldfish and pretzels and other similar nutritional powerhouses (kidding about the nutritional part). But, I'm rarely that together and organized.

At any rate, I felt like making muffins today. I had a couple apples kicking around from a couple weeks ago when I lugged home 2 one pound apple bags. So, I made this tried and true muffin recipe to have around this week. I'm not sure what I'll do with them exactly, but I think they'll disappear with no problem! After all, they're low in fat and taste great! That cinnamon swirl adds a nice sweetness to the muffin, and the chunks of sweet apple are just divine. Not that I tasted one or anything! :)


Apple-Oat Muffins With Brown Sugar-Cinnamon Swirl
Shape Magazine
12 muffins

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. warm water
1 cup milk
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 apple -- peeled, cored and diced

Preheat oven to 400 F. Coat a 24-cup mini-muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside. In large bowl, combine both flours, oats, granulated sugar, baking powder, ½ tsp. Of the cinnamon, baking soda, salt and cloves. Mix thoroughly with a fork, make a well in the center and set aside. In a small bowl, combine remaining teaspoon of cinnamon along with brown sugar and water. Whisk until brown sugar is dissolved. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, applesauce, egg, oil and vanilla. Pour liquid mixture into center of dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Fold in diced apple. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups and then top each muffin with ¼ tsp of the brown sugar-cinnamon mixture. Using a toothpick, swirl the mixture gently into each muffin. Bake 12 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack, 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan.

Nutrition score per serving (2 mini-muffins or 1 regular-sized muffin)
Calories - 140, 13 % fat (2 grams, 0 % saturated), 76 % carbs (26 g), 11% protein (4g), 2 g fiber, 78 mg calcium, 267 mg sodium