Each week our co-op gives us 6 apples, which turned into 12 apples by the next pick-up the following week. Aside from making applesauce, I decided to try these apple doughnut muffins that I’ve seen around the internet. They are made like muffins, but supposedly taste like donuts. So no deep fryer or large vats of oil necessary. Just grease up your muffin pan and bake. Once out of the oven the tops are dipped in melted butter, and dredged in a sugar/cinnamon mixture, making them taste pretty close to actual doughnuts.

I think these are Fuji apples. You’ll need approximately two cups chopped, which for me was 2 medium sized apples.

Apple Muffin-Doughnuts

(makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1-3/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/3 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
• 2 cups apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup milk

For the topping:

• 1/4 cup of butter, melted
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Using a fork, add butter and mix into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.
2. In a separate bowl, combine egg and milk. Add apples. Gently fold into flour mixture but don’t over mix, batter should be lumpy.
3. Grease muffin pan with spray or butter. Spoon batter into muffin pan. Bake in oven for 25 minutes.
4. As muffins are baking, melt butter in one bowl, and in another bowl combine sugar and cinnamon. When muffins are done baking, gently remove them from pan with a spoon. Dip the muffins top side down into the melted butter, then dip into the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Serve warm, and if there’s any left, store in tupperware.

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Directions with Photos:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Using a fork, add butter and mix into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs.

This is how small the pieces of chopped apples are.

In a separate bowl, combine egg and milk. Add apples. Gently fold into flour mixture but don’t over mix, batter should be lumpy.

Grease muffin pan with spray or butter. Spoon batter into muffin pan. Bake in oven for 25 minutes.

They looked so good out of the oven I almost forgot the most important step..

As muffins are baking, melt butter in one bowl, and in another bowl combine sugar and cinnamon. When muffins are done baking, gently remove them from pan with a spoon.

Dip the muffins top side down into the melted butter, then dip into the sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Serve warm, and if there’s any left, store in tupperware.

This was my taste test. They did taste pretty close to doughnuts…..except it was missing the deep-fried greasy aftertaste. Which could be a good thing. The texture resembled doughnuts as well…soft and light on the inside, and crispy and hard on the outside. And the cinnamon sugar topping with melted butter tasted exactly like a doughnut would.

I’m glad I found this recipe because it used butter and not shortening or oil in the ingredients. I just like the taste of butter in baked recipes more because it doesn’t have that greasy aftertaste, the kind I always think about after eating, say, an Oreo cookie. Plus I don’t feel all icky after eating an muffin-doughnut hybrid like I do with a regular doughnut. Whether they taste like a doughnut or not to you, give them a try, as a muffin at least.