A Day at the Orchard & Apple Bran Muffins

A few weeks ago, Jordan and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather, and pick some apples from our local orchard. The leaves were just starting to change, and we experienced the first real chilly weather of autumn.

While apple picking seems to be a trendy thing to do these days, it’s something I’ve done with my family for the past few years. It’s a great way to get out into the fresh air, and a really cost effective way to buy organic apples!

I thought that Charlotte would be more interested in the apples, since these days she seems to want to grab every object in sight, but she only cared when the apple was in her hands, not hanging from the tree branches. Maybe next year!

 
When we got home from our outing, I realized that I had a lot of apples that I needed to use. I love baking, but we try not to eat a lot of sweets, so I decided to make apple bran muffins. While I don’t know that any muffin is really a “health food”, these use very little sugar, instead relying on the apples to sweeten them.

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup wheat bran
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick salted butter, melted
6 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature (room temp is preferable for mixing, but not necessary)
1 cup applesauce
1 cup peeled, cored and diced apple

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
Whisk together the flour, bran, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. In another bowl, stir together the butter, sugar, egg and applesauce. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined, then fold in the diced apples. 
Optional: This recipe was plenty sweet for us, but if you know you like your muffins on the sweeter side, sprinkle the top of each muffin with about 1/4 teaspoon of granulated sugar. 
Line a 12-cup muffin tin with baking cups. Spoon the batter evenly between the cups, and then bake for about 22-24 minutes. Let the muffins cool at least 15 minutes before eating, or most of it will stick to the baking cup. 

If you try this recipe, let me know what you think in the comments below!

Also, be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss another post! 

Leave A Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This Celebrated Life