Apple Butterscotch Cinnamon Muffins

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but even with both B and I nomming on our fresh-picked goodies, that's still a lot of days of apple-eating. While once again stalking my coworker's blog and web site, I came across this recipe for Apple Butterscotch Cinnamon muffins. I don't think the "apple cinnamon" part would have sold me, but it's the butterscotch part that did it. Who doesn't love butterscotch?

Further, this recipe called for applesauce. Thankfully, I had already used some of our bounty to make this vanilla bean applesauce. I had everything I needed, so I energetically, if recklessly, dived in. You'll see what I mean later.

To begin, mix 2.5 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, one teaspoon of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon together in a bowl. Add in 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats. Set it to the side.

In another bowl, cream together one stick of room-temperature butter and 1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar. Here's where I need to emphasize the "room temperature" part of this. I was too impatient to wait for my butter to warm up to room temperature, so I simply zapped it in its wrapper for 10 seconds, then 10 more. Then I tried to mix it with the brown sugar.

Bad idea. It wasn't going ANYwhere. So I had to stick the entire mixing bowl in the microwave and zapped it for another 15 seconds before I managed to get the butter soft enough to cream. Part of the problem is that I didn't have a mixer with me at B's house, so I was doing this all by hand, but most of the problem is that I was too impatient to start.

To recap: make sure your butter is room temperature before you begin. That way, when you cream it with the brown sugar, it will look something like this (without needing a jaunt to the microwave):

After you finally get that done, add in 2/3 cup applesauce, 2 eggs and 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.

This is also an important step: make sure your fiance doesn't eat the last of the eggs without telling you so that when you look in the fridge to grab the eggs, you find none. Then you have to go run down the street to CVS (the closest place to buy eggs) in the middle of your cooking.

Once you've done that, mix in the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with 1 cup milk (total). Once everything is fully mixed, fold in 1 cup of butterscotch chips and 1 cup apple, finely chopped. The finished batter looked like this:

Pour the batter into muffin tins with liners (or without liners, if you don't mind scrubbing a muffin tin) and bake at 350. The original recipe said to bake for 18 - 22 minutes, but in B's oven they were done in 16 minutes, and the bottoms were a little dark. So keep an eye on them to make sure you don't burn them.

Cool in the pan for 5 - 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

B really liked these. The oats make them hearty without making them heavy, and the butterscotch chips are little bombs of goodness. They will be a great breakfast for us for the next week or so.

Whenever you serve these, I recommend serving them warm because they are SO delicious that way.

If you would like to make these, check out the original recipe here, or see below for my changes/modifications (there weren't many for this recipe - it was a good one!)

Apple Butterscotch Cinnamon Muffins

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature (seriously!)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup applesauce
2 eggs (make sure your fiance hasn't eaten them all)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup finely chopped apple

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
In medium mixing bowl, combine first five ingredients. Stir in oats and mix well together.
In a separate bowl, cream butter together until light and smooth.
Beat in applesauce, eggs and vanilla to butter and cream mixture.
Mix in dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk.
Fold in butterscotch chips and apple.
Pour batter into muffin tins with paper liners.
Bake for 16 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 - 10 minutes, then move to wire rack to cool completely.