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Apple Walnut Muffins

A few weeks ago I wrote here that I hardly made any muffins last year but I guess this changed this year. Yet again I am sharing a muffin recipe with you which I made bright and early today and I could not wait to share the recipe with you. I originally planned to write about my Swedish princess cake experience which I made yesterday. I put this on hold and share this apple muffin recipe because I absolutely love the result. The recipe is very similar to the raspberry muffin recipe that I posted a few days ago. This time I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil and I think in the future I will experiment more with olive oil because it seems to be an excellent alternative to butter or vegetable oil. Like the raspberry muffins, I used only a little bit of sugar and I added again oats and walnuts. In addition, I added some unsweetened coconut flakes which was a great choice. First I was a little bit hesitant if it was a smart decision adding shredded coconut but it complements the flavor of apples, cinnamon and walnuts perfectly. To sum it up it up, these apple muffins are another yummy guilt-free breakfast muffin but of course you can enjoy these muffins with your afternoon tea or coffee as well. In fact, this morning I had a berry smoothie and had this apple muffin this afternoon with a cup of peppermint tea.
I am not only looking forward to tomorrow’s breakfast but I already have ideas for new muffin creations. I admit it: I become a slightly addicted muffin baker.
Makes 6 muffins

INGREDIENTS

    • 1 vanilla bean
    • 50 g muscovado sugar *
    • 1 egg, medium size
    • 100 g buttermilk
    • 1 tablespoon olive oil
    • 60 g whole wheat flour
    • 60 g pastry flour
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • ½ teaspoon baking soda
    • 1 pinch of salt
    • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
    • 30 g rolled oats
    • 20 g unsweetened shredded coconuts
    • 40 g walnuts,  roughly chopped 
    • 2 apples, medium size
    • 2 tablespoons almond flakes
* If you do not have any muscovado sugar on hand (it is a very dark unrefined brown sugar), you can substitute it with regular brown sugar. I like the taste of muscovado sugar a lot and it is a little bit “healthier” than granulated sugar.

DIRECTIONS

  • Line your muffin pan with paper liners or grease the pan.
  • Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
  • Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds.
  • Whisk the scraped out seeds of the vanilla bean, muscovado sugar, egg, buttermilk and olive oil until it is well combined.
  • In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients: whole wheat flour, wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, oats, coconut flakes and chopped walnuts.
  • Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until it is well combined but do not overmix.
  • Peel the apples and grate the apples coarsely.
  • Fold in the grated apples to the mixture.
  • Fill the batter into the muffin pan. Sprinkle the top with almond flakes.
  • Bake the muffins for 15 to 20 minutes.
  • Let the muffins cool in the pan; remove from the pan.