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Applesauce adds goodness, cuts fat

Recipe: Healthy muffins are less messy, too

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JAN 17, 2021

Muffin pan with muffins in green, yellow, blue cups — Applesauce muffins, fresh from the oven, make a healthy snack or breakfast bread.
(Photos: Debbie Arrington)

Muffins were made for breakfast on the go. They're just as perfect for afternoon snacking. Why? Those carbohydrates offer a quick energy boost.

This recipe substitutes applesauce for milk and most of the oil, cutting down on fat while adding more good-for-you nutrients.

These easy muffins have a baking powder biscuit-like texture and smell delicious while baking. When cut, they don't fall apart into a bunch of crumbs, making these muffins less messy, too.

3 muffins on a yellow plate — They look yummy and smell delicious.

Applesauce muffins
Makes 12 large muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup raisins
2 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup applesauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
Demerara sugar (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a 12-cup muffin tin. Lightly grease cups or use silicon cup liners.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger. Stir in raisins.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs. Blend in brown sugar. Add applesauce, then cooking oil and vanilla.

Make a well in the dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients. With a wooden spoon, stir until just blended. Don't overwork batter.

Spoon batter into prepared cups of muffin tin. For large muffins, fill cups about 3/4 full. If desired, sprinkle Demerara sugar or additional brown sugar on top of each muffin. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown; a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Let cool a few minutes before removing from tin. Best served warm.

Split muffins on yellow plate — The muffins feature raisins, but dried cranberries or

currants work just as well.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipe recipes. baking gardening Sacramento healthy eating produce management farm to fork muffins backyard produce orchard fruit cooking apples

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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