By guest blogger Stephanie Maris
I’ll come right out and say it: I’m not a baker. Baking is too much of a scientific process for this writer. I far prefer winging an entrée by taste (often adding another splash or two of wine) to carefully measuring powders and flours.
On some cool Toronto mornings, however, baking is the only thing that will do, but I try to keep my choices as healthy as possible. Some breakfast muffins are little more than cupcakes in disguise, and while there’s nothing tastier than a chocolate-chip-blueberry mouthful, I like to whip up a batch that I can eat every day. I present my favorite experiment to date: a low-fat apple wonder loaded with fibre that tastes like dessert. In fact, I often start and end my days with one of these!
Two quick notes before we begin (the first one may have changed my life):
- You can substitute applesauce for oil in most muffins and cookies.
- When adding dried fruit, like the raisins here, cut down on sugar. The super-concentrated natural sugars will sweeten just fine on their own.
Applesauce Breakfast Muffins
Ingredients:
- 1 cup quick oats
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1 egg
- 1 apple, peeled, cored and cut into small pieces
- Cinnamon and brown sugar, to garnish
Method:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners. Grease well as these muffins are low-fat, and will stick if you aren’t careful.
- Place oats in a bowl with 1 cup of milk.
- In a large bowl, stir together whole-wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and brown sugar. Stir in oat/milk mixture, applesauce and egg. Mix well.
- Add your apple and optional dried fruit.
- Pour batter into prepared muffin cups and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the top of each cup.
- Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean.
Photo by Stephanie Maris
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