Makes 12 muffins

The streusel makes the muffin.  And these apple muffins are amazing: moist, tender, with a generous coating of sweet and crunchy topping.

 After you peel the apples, get a head start on chopping them with the Prepara Apple Splitter.  Once you have your slices, with just an additional minute and a knife and cutting board, you’ll have chopped apple ready to fold into your batter.

You can use any baking apple here, from Honeycrisp to Granny Smith to Pink Lady to Gala.  The muffins will take on the personality of the apples.  Use a combo if you want different levels of apple flavor.  If you don’t have the ground cloves or ginger, the cinnamon will be enough to give the muffins that wonderful autumnal flavor.

You can store these for up to three days at room temperature in a tightly sealed container, like the Prepara EVAK Containers.

Streusel:

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup walnuts, finely chopped (optional)

¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into little pieces

Apple Muffins

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 large apples, peeled, cored, and chopped (about 2 cups)

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 large eggs

¾ cup whole milk or plain yogurt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick spray, or line the cups with paper liners, and spray those with nonstick spray.

Place the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Melt the butter, stirring occasionally, and allow it to get medium brown; not too dark, but deeper than golden.  It should smell toasty and nutty.  Set aside to cool.

Make the streusel: in a medium bowl combine the sugar, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt.  Stir in the walnuts if using.  Add the chilled butter and use your fingers to rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is coarsely crumbly.  Set aside in a cool place.

Make the muffins:  in a medium bowl toss the apples with the lemon juice.  Set aside.  In a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. 

In a large bowl mix together the cooled browned butter, eggs, milk or yogurt, and vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients to the bowl in two batches, stirring each batch into the wet mixture just until incorporated; you should still see a few streaks of flour.  Fold in the apples, just until they are incorporated; do not overmix.

Use a spoon or ice cream scoop to fill the prepared muffin tins ¾ full.  Evenly distribute the streusel over the tops of the batter.

Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, or with just a crumb or two clinging to it. 

Cool in the tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn the muffins out of the tin and finish cooling on the rack.  Serve warm or at room temperature.