Muffin Mondays | Apple Pie Muffins with Cinnamon Streusel

Apple pie muffins. Think apple pie filling meets fluffy muffin dough. Think sweet, gooey, cinnamon-coated apple slices. Think of how good the kitchen will smell after you bake a batch of these goodies.  You see, I heart pie. I really really do. And I heart muffins too, so why can’t my two loves meet and create one giant love?

To be fair it took me a couple tries to get these muffins right. When I received the email with this week’s Muffin Monday recipe for an Apple Muffin, my pie-loving brain instantly thought of apple pie muffins. Then I was faced with the dilemma of how exactly one shoves a pie into a muffin.

My first attempt was a bit of a failure. The muffin itself had a nice texture but really lacked oomph and sweetness. On my second go around I added a normal amount of sugar for a muffin, plus the already sweetened apple pie filling. Things started heading in the right direction. After a little experimenting with apple pie filling combined with the right proportions of flour, sugar, baking soda and eggs, a little magic happened. These muffins really do taste like apple pie in muffin form. The cinnamon streusel on top adds the perfect bit of crunchy sweetness, like a Dutch apple pie.  They are chock full of spicy and fragrant cinnamon and bursting with baked apple goodness, all tucked inside the body of a muffin. My two loves successfully merged into one, living happily ever after.

 

Apple Pie Muffin Recipe:

1 cup apple pie filling

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon plus 2 pinches salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

for streusel:

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 12-cup standard muffin tin; set aside.

Whisk together sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and butter in a small bowl. Gently fold buttermilk mixture into flour mixture until just combined; do not overmix. Fold apple pie filling into the mixture until evenly incorporated. For streusel combine the sugar, cinnamon and flour and butter and work it with your finger tips till the mixture is crumbly. Top each muffin with streusel. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake until muffins are brown around edges and spring back when touched, 16 to 18 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature.