Applesauce Muffins

It's been far too long since I baked something. A whole week! Given, part of it is because I've been trying to be good and make sure that at least most of what I made last weekend was gone first. While browsing the web tonight, I found a recipe for applesauce muffins. I've been searching for a good way to use up the Costco case of applesauce I bought awhile back, and muffins are such an easy breakfast. I knew I had to make some NOW. The original recipe came from the Wilton website, and there wasn't much I had to alter! 

Some variations could include substituting a cup of the regular flour for a cup of whole wheat flour. You could also add some dried oats, chocolate chips, bananas, raisins.. The possibilities are endless. I've made this version, along with the variations below. 

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, melted and cooled

3 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup applesauce 

2 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375º. Line two 12 cup muffin pans with paper liners, set aside. 

Whisk together eggs and brown sugar until well combined and fluffy. Add vanilla, butter and applesauce and mix until well combined. 

Dump flour, soda, baking powder, spices and salt on top of wet ingredients, mix lightly with a whisk or your fingers, then combine gently with wet ingredients. 

Fill the muffin cups about 2/3 full with batter. This made 23 muffins for me, the original recipe says it should only be 12, but I'm not complaining. The more the merrier! 

Bake for 20 minutes, or until a knife/toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and tops are golden brown. 

Variations:
-Substitute one cup of whole wheat flour in place of one cup of regular flour. 
-Add one cup of oats
-Add one cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Look at the oozy goodness!

(I did all of the above variations in the same batch, but you can definitely do them separately!)

Now, the original recipe says that you can add raisins to this, but why would you want to spoil them? I'm not a big fan of raisins myself, and neither are my kids (which is exactly why I've got a box of raisins sitting in my pantry that I bought close to a year ago..). Because of the applesauce in them, these are incredibly moist muffins, and a bit sticky, but wonderful. I had a problem with them sticking to the bottom of the muffin liner, but it wasn't really a big problem. 

Pictures to come soon.