Apple Streusel Muffins

Alright so I know that we're passed all the apple recipes but, I still have an entire fruit drawer in the refrigerator that is full of them! While the boys love a good apple, in particular the toddler, there is no way they can eat them that fast. So, with no room for any other fruit like grapes, oranges, etc. something has to be done. 

So, it was down with apples day around here! 

I didn't want just an apple muffin though, mainly because I was going to make an apple bread as well. So, I immediately thought of The Girl Who Ate Everything and her Apple Muffins. She always makes good stuff and I knew that I would "tweak" it. Tweak is a constant term used to describe what I do to recipes around here! I tested her recipe a week or two earlier and LOVED it! I knew though, that the boys and some of the family I was baking for are big, no huge fans of cinnamon with apples. Hence I made an apple struesel muffin mix!

Apple Streusel Muffins!

Notice the cute Halloween papers? My oldest son said that they needed this to make them look pretty! :)

I stuck to to Christy's recipe pretty well (below):

Cream together:
2 cups sugar (I use 1 1/2 cups)
2 eggs
1 cup oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Sift:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 cups peeled, cored, diced apples (around 3 apples)
Brown sugar for topping (around 1/2 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper liners.

Cream together sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon (I never sift and they turn out fine). Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix until combined. The batter will be very thick. Add the diced apples.

Fill paper liners almost to the top, about 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-24 minutes. Makes 18 muffins 

Only I added of course, a bit more cinnamon to the muffin mix. I eyeballed it so I'm guessing about 2 /1/2 - 3 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. I added maybe about 1 - 2 tbs of extra sugar and then even a bit of brown sugar in the mix!

Plus you can't have a streusel muffin without the "Streusel"! So, the first batch or so I simply sprinkled brow sugar across the top, lightly dusted that with cinnamon and then a pinch of sugar to each muffin. For the subsequent batched I actually made a typical streusel topping. It didn't taste as good as the other one though so I added to it. I'll share the typical recipe for those who desire less of the cinnamon and sugar though. :)

Streusel topping:
1/2cp packed brown sugar
1/2cp of flour
1/2 stick of room temp or softened butter

*I added a bit of sugar and cinnamon to this though. 

You just mix until crumbly. Then sprinkle over the tops. Bake them per Christy's directions and they turn out AMAZING! P.S. I gave mine a couple taps of the muffin pan on the counter to remove any air bubbles in the mix. 

So far, so good, everyone has wanted to eat more, including the toddler! Who may have ruined his lunch by eating several in a row when my back was turned.

If you try them our way, I hope you enjoy them. Have a safe holiday!