Recipe: Fresh apple muffins with vanilla yogurt
Great for breakfast on the run, fresh apple muffins are packed with chopped apples. Debbie Arrington
Fall is apple season. For many households, it’s also the busiest time of the year with so many activities (and deadlines).
These apple-packed muffins make a quick breakfast treat or portable midday snack. They’re finely textured and don’t fall apart (good for when on the go). The key is finely chopping (or shredding) the fresh apple. Big chunks can create holes in the baked muffin.
It takes about two large apples for 1-1/2 cups of chopped or shredded. Choose a juicy variety such as a Red Delicious or Gala. The sweeter the apples, the sweeter the muffins.
Fresh apple muffins
Makes 12
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
1-1/2 tablespoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¾ cup vanilla or plain yogurt
¼ cup low-fat milk or apple juice
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, melted and cooled
1-1/2 cups apple, cored, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons sugar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare muffin tin; grease or line cups. Set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
In a small bowl, mix together yogurt, milk or juice and egg. Fold in melted butter.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients. Mix gently until batter is just blended. Fold in chopped apple.
Fill cups of prepared muffin tin about two-thirds full. Sprinkle sugar on top of batter.
Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until tops are golden and a wooden toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool in tin for 5 minutes, then remove.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
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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.