Wednesday Baking | Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins
When I asked for baking suggestions a few weeks ago, a number of you suggested that I post a pumpkin recipe or an apple recipe. After thinking about that, I remembered about this recipe, which has both pumpkin and apples (with the happy addition of streusel). They taste (and smell) just like fall to me.
The recipe comes courtesy of my grandmother, who despite being past the age of 80, is tech-savvy enough to read my blog posts every day (Hi, Bestemor!).
The yield for this recipe is 24 muffins, so although they freeze well, you might want to halve the recipe if you don't have as many muffin eaters at your house as I do!
Like most muffins, these are simple to make. First, mix the dry ingredients together.
Then mix the wet ingredients. This picture is of them un-mixed, obviously. I thought they looked much prettier this way.
But in case you're curious, here's what they look like all mixed up.
Chop up two cups of peeled apples.
Mix the apples into the wet ingredients, and mix the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Since this is a non-yeast bread, you will want to err on the side of undermixing. Otherwise, your muffins will be tough.
Spoon the muffin batter into 24 greased muffin cups. You can also use muffin liners, which makes things a lot simpler. Since muffin liners are compostable, I'm not opposed to using them...I just didn't have any on hand this week.
Combine the streusel ingredients and sprinkle over top of the muffins.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. To test for doneness (is that even a word??), just stick a toothpick into the middle of a muffin. If it comes out clean, or with dry crumbs attached, your muffins are done. If the toothpick is wet, bake the muffins for another 5 minutes.
Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins-makes 24 muffins
Dry Ingredients
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (or 2 teaspoons cinnamon + ¼ teaspoon of cloves, ginger, and allspice)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin
½ cup oil
2 cups peeled, chopped apples
Streusel
2 tablespoons flour
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
4 teaspoons butter
Heat over to 350. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, pumpkin and oil together. Stir apples into pumpkin mixture. Gently mix pumpkin mixture into dry ingredients. Spoon batter into 24 greased muffin cups.
Combine streusel ingredients, using a pastry blender. Sprinkle on top of muffins.
Bake 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
Would these work with just apples? We're not big pumpkin fans around here. And also 1 tbsp. of cinnamon alone instead of pumkin pie spice?
These look yummy, thanks for posting! Do you have any good quick bread recipes for fall? I need to start trying things out for teacher gifts!
Wendy, I don't think they'd work properly if you left out the pumpkin altogether. You could sub just cinnamon, though, if you'd like.
You might have success with substituting applesauce for the pumpkin, as it's sort of the same texture. Your batter would probably be a little runnier, but I think it would bake up fine.
Lovely fall recipe! My parents would totally love this one.
Mmmm..YUM! They look so good I'm tempted to buy the ingredients on my lunch and bake some tonight!
These look delicious! I have a question though. I have never cooked with pumpkin and so when you say one cup of pumpkin in the recipe, is it just straight pumpkin or is it a puree or from a can? Please pardon my ignorance!:)
Ashley, this is just canned pumpkin. Not pumpkin pie filling, mind you...just plain old canned pumpkin!
These look absolutely fabulous!! Yum!! Kristen, I've had pumpkin in the fridge since last Wednesday (from a can, but in a Tupperware container, sealed) Do you think it's still ok to use today?
@Wendy
My thought was applesauce instead of pumpkin as well, because I have applesauce in the freezer (kept an apple from going bad) and the pumpkin is earmarked for pies. I will make the applesauce drier than usual by simmering it a bit longer, something you can with homemade applesauce or storebought.
But homemade is so simple that I haven't bought applesauce in years. It is what we used to call a Stupidly Simple - something so tasty you can't believe how easy it is.
- Peel, core, chop an apple.
- Put in a small pot with 1/2" of water or so (the water is to help the apple get hot without burning the pan).
- Cover, simmer till the apple is sauce.
Or do it the lazy way (my way!), by quartering and coring the apple, then cooking it, then pulling the skin off the cooked bits, then smoosh to sauce.
@Ashley
Or you can use homemade puree. Make sure you get a pumpkin intended for eating rather than carving; the "pie pumpkins" taste much better. You cook the pumpkin like any other hard squash:
- cut into large pieces, scoop out seeds,
- put in a pan with 1/2" water, bake at 350F till soft OR cover pan and microwave till soft
- let cool then scoop out the flesh.
You can wash the seeds, spice them, then bake till dry to make pumpkin seeds to eat.
WilliamB,
feeling a tad enthusiastic today
Thank you for this! I will be making these for breakfast this weekend to celebrate my husband returning from his long business trip! We will all love them!
I've been following your blog for a few months now, and wanted to add that I love it!
Kristen- This is incredible- it's nearly the exact same pumpkin bread recipe I've been baking for over 30 years (right down to the 2 cups of sugar- a lot!)- except with the apple strudel part added.
I'm going to try this! Thanks. The pumpkin bread has been a big favorite for a long time.
These look oh so yumy. I was planning on making pumpkin muffins this weekend, and these might have to be made as well!
And I've given you a blog award....should be up soon!
@Carla I would personally think it would be fine, especially because it will get baked at 350 degrees, which is enough to kill anything that might be growing in it. I often bake with produce that is slightly iffy for eating raw because I figure the heat makes it safe.
I'm making these TONIGHT!!
WilliamB - I also make all our applesauce and, like so many things that you can buy prepared, it's super easy - I use your "recipe" in fact!
Kristen, these were really good. I baked them last night with a few subs. I used 3.5 cups fresh milled soft white wheat and sucanant with honey instead of white sugar. Thanks for the great recipe.
I've never written in, but I read your blog all the time and it's one of my favourites. I just made these this morning and they turned out great, thanks! I had pumpkin to use up and was going to use my universal muffin recipe, but puree can be tricky because it's a wet add-in and I didn't know the best ratios. I ran upstairs and printed your recipe instead because I knew it'd turn out great - I make your granola bars and other things and your recipes have never failed. Thanks again!!
I made these on Halloween morning as a breakfast treat for the kids - they were delicious!
I made this for breakfast at Sunday School. Everyone gobbled them up and raved about them. My son ate the last one on the way home from church. Thanks for the recipe!
This is an older post so I'm not sure if you're still checking the comments, but I wanted to let you know I finally made these and they were sooo yummy! I'm eating one now actually!
Just wondering - do all muffins have that much sugar in them? I've usually just made muffins from the box so I have no idea what goes into them. Do you have any other recipes that with less sugar, or is that amount common? Can it be reduced in any way?
Erika, yep, I get notifications in my email box of all new comments, so I always see what you all say, even if you comment on a REALLY old post!
Not all muffins have the same amount of sugar. Often, a recipe will have a half cup for a dozen, whereas this one has 1 cup for a dozen. I'm not sure why this has more than usual. Hmm. Commercial muffin mixes have a lot of sugar too, though, so I doubt this is a lot more sugary than what you've been making.
You could try reducing it a half cup at a time, and see how things go. You wouldn't want to leave it all out, because sugar provides bulk to batters, and your muffins would be sort of flat and empty without any sugar.
If you try it with less, let me know how the muffins turn out!
I made a half batch last night and reduced the sugar from 1c. to 1/2c. I also did not have enough apples, so I used about 3/4c. chopped apples and 1/4c. raisins. Also, last time I made 4 gigantic muffins with half a batch of batter, and this time I made 10 smaller muffins (I used a 12 cup pan but didn't think there would be enough batter for 12 muffins).
I actually preferred the taste of the muffins with the reduced sugar. It made them taste a bit more "muffiny" and a bit less "cakey".
My one concern was that after I put the muffins out to cool they kind of compressed and flattened a bit. They still taste great, but they are much smaller! Unless you think this is something that is related to the reduction in sugar (I'm still learning the ins and outs of baking ingredients!), I think it would be fine to reduce the sugar (and in my opinion they came out even better).
i have to say these are so divine!! i have enjoyed them so much! i just made them for the second time this season, and i'm planning on giving them away to my daughter's kindergarten teacher tomorrow as an early merry Christmas. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I made them this weekend for a group and they were a big hit. I love them, I think they are my favorite muffins ever! I can't wait to make them more this fall.
Did you get this recipe from 500 Best Muffins? I made these this past week and that's where I got the recipe from.
Nope! I got it from my grandma, and I have no idea where she got it. 🙂
Just wanted to say I saved this recipe years ago and it is still one of my favorites! I just made a batch and was enjoying them so much I thought I should thank you! It is a great recipe anytime but today it made my house smell like fall on a very rainy day! I had some ripe bananas so I substituted 1 cup of sugar for 1 1/2 bananas and they are still delicious!