Apple Muffins

Sometimes life has a way of letting things just work out. They might not be perfect, but they work. Like trying to juggle family, house, dogs, and job... and just crossing your fingers that you don't run out of gas before you get home because you forgot to fill up the tank. You get my point, life sometimes works things out for ya..... it just does.

So, after a long break from baking due to getting a new fridge, that  had some "troubles." I am now back into full swing fall baking...gotta prep for the holidays! This recipe was originally made in a tube pan, but that is a whole lotta cake to bring to work for an office meeting. So, I decided to try making them into muffins...well it worked out...kinda a...not really.

The apples and the cinnamon as well as the fresh squeezed OJ (thanks Peter) added such great flavor to these very moist, very fall like muffins. However, they were a bit difficult to remove from their little muffin tins....so alas, not so pretty and kind of too moist to just grab and sink your teeth into. 

That said, they turned out just fine... almost perfect... life would not have it any other way.

Muffins with apples and cinnamon..mmmm fall has arrived. This is adapted from Smitten Kitchen's mom's apple cake and lets just say that in muffin form they are just as good. Kind of hard to get out of the muffin tin, so not as pretty as her momma's cake, but tasty. I think the secret is the orange juice it brings something special out of the apples and cinnamon...and special it is. Next time I am sticking to the original and baking this as a cake. Per Deb, the cake is tastier the second day as time lets these flavors sing.

Apple Cake from Smitten Kitchen

6 apples, I used McIntosh per the recipe ( I would think Granny Smith would be fine as well)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
2 & 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 OJ (fresh squeezed if you can)
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs 
Walnuts about 1 cup (optional)

Made a ton of muffins, however some were too mangled to serve. So next time I would either use paper liners or really really grease the tin.... or just make it into a cake. The muffins were really hard to unmold...such is life!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan or muffins tins.  Peel, core and chop the apples into about 1/2 inch chunks. Toss the apples with 5 tablespoons of the sugar and cinnamon and set aside. Make sure to stir them up well

Stir the together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix the oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ones. Then add the eggs one at a time. Make sure to mix until all the ingredients are incorporated.

Pour half the batter into the prepared pan ( or cups, if using muffin tins just put about 2 tablespoons in each tin.) Spread half the apples over the mixture. Pour the remaining batter over the apples. Then arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake the cake for about 1 & 1/2 hours until the tester comes out clean. Bake the muffins for about 25 to 30 min.

Enjoy!