Apple spice bourbon muffins.

I more-or-less invented these this morning, basing it on Mark Bittman's "Sweet and Rich Muffins" recipe and inspired by the apple spice cake I made for Milo's sixth birthday, but with extra bourbon.   I'm really proud of how they turned out.

These are sort of halfway between a cupcake and a muffin in sweetness, but with enough good-for-you stuff that they totally qualify for breakfast.  The glaze is optional.  I think raisins would also be a nice addition.  They are a little more work than regular muffins because of the creaming-the-butter step; if you keep your stand mixer on the counter, you could use it and speed the process up; but if it's trouble to get your mixer out, as it is for me, you can totally do this with forks and whisks and such.

Apple spice bourbon muffins (makes one dozen standard muffins)

• 6 Tbsp room-temperature butter
• 4 Tbsp brown sugar 
• 6 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce plus more if necessary
• 4 tsp bourbon whisky (technically this is optional; you could use 2 tsp vanilla instead)
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup chopped firm apple
• 1/2 tsp salt (unless the butter's salted, as mine was; I left the extra salt out)

Glaze (sorry about measurements, I eyeballed them -- but it's hard to screw this stuff up)

• About 2 Tbsp cream cheese, room temperature
• About 2 Tbsp butter, room temperature
• About 6 Tbsp powdered sugar

Cream butter and both sugars with a fork in a large mixing bowl.  Whisk in eggs, 1/2 c applesauce, and bourbon.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt if using, and spices.  Stir dry ingredients gently into egg mixture; add more applesauce if it is too dry.  Stir in chopped apples.  

Spoon batter into greased 12-cup muffin tin and bake 20-25 minutes until toothpick comes clean.  Allow to cool 5 minutes before glazing.

For glaze:  Cream ingredients together with a fork and spread a small amount over the top of the warm muffins.  These are for breakfast, so just a little bit is enough.

 

Comments

[Bethany]

Those look delicious! Thanks for the recipe.

[Cathie B]

Oh yummy! I'll take my bourbon straight! Just kidding. It's too funny because I was just going to blog about the blueberry muffins I made this morning! I made "Best Blueberry Muffins" for breakfast here from ATK (America's Test Kitchen) and converted 1/2 the batch to dairy free/egg free so Ambrose and I wouldn't be left out. Ellie even had some.