Muffin Monday

I've been looking at different muffin recipes over the past week or so looking for some lower fat alternatives to the fat induced ones. In doing so, I found some really nice ones that I'll share later (once I've tried them out) and also realized that really, the key to making the muffins lower in fat is to find an alternative to the butter or oil that is used. You may or may not know that one of the suggested alternatives to oil is applesauce. So, I decided to take a recipe I have made in the past and change a couple of ingredients.


The result? While they didn't rise as high (the originals have HUGE lovely tops), and they were more dense than the original recipe, they were quite nice. The cinnamon mixture on top was a nice contrast to the apple and cranberries. The ultimate test? Little Miss C. She LOVED them. Ate three on Friday alone. 


Below is the original recipe (fat is good once in awhile) with my alternatives in brackets.


Cranberry Apple Muffins


Ingredients
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 c brown sugar (I only used 1 cup)
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 cup plain yoghurt ( I didn't have yoghurt and used fat free sour cream instead)
1/2 cup oil ( used 1/2 cup applesauce)
2 cups chopped apple
2/4 cup chopped cranberries


Topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped almonds (I used chopped pecans)
3 tbls rolled oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbls melted margarine


Combine topping in a bowl an set aside. Combine in a bowl: flour, sugar and baking soda. In a separate bowl, combine the egg, yoghurt, and applesauce and mix well. Stir the flour mixture with the wet ingredients until just combined. Stir in the apples and cranberries. 

Pour into paper liners and sprinkle on topping. Pat down the topping a little. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I used two different liners. I wanted to try the stand alone paper cups. I quite liked the outcome. Enjoy!

Stand alone muffin cups 

The standard Muffin cups