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The apple softens and adds a natural sweetness to the muffins while the bran give them an earthy taste. We love these!
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| Heat oven to 350. Position an oven rack to the middle position. Line a muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners. Spray lightly with cooking spray and set aside. | In a medium bowl add flour, both sugars, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. | Mix well and set aside. |
1 1/4 c (6.25 oz) flour ⅓ c brown sugar ⅓ c sugar 1 ½ t baking powder 1 t cinnamon ½ t baking soda ½ t salt I like to line muffin pans with cupcake liners for three reasons: 1) The muffins don’t stick to the pan. 2) It’s easier to freeze and package them. 3) The bottoms don’t burn. It seems they are more likely to without liners. It’s also nice to lightly spray inside the liner so the delicate muffin will release easily. |
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| Peel and core two apples. Shred using a cheese grater. Measure 1 c and add to a bowl of an electric mixer. | Also add sour cream, bran, shredded apple, melted butter, egg, and vanilla. | Using an immersion blender, pulse until bran is in small pieces. |
1 c (8 oz) sour cream 1 c (4.5 oz) shredded apple ½ c (4 oz) unsalted butter melted 1 c (2 oz) bran cereal 1 egg 1 t vanilla |
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| With the electric mixer on low, add the dry mixture. Mix until just blended. | Using an ice-cream-scoop, scoop batter into prepared muffin tin. | This is a thick batter and will mound slightly above the liner.
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Muffins should be soft and have a delicate crumb. Overmixing makes them tough. A spring-release ice cream scoop is really useful for these muffins. A standard scoop is the exact amount needed to fill the cup. This is a stiff batter and the release lever is helpful in transfering them. |
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| Bake 17-20 minutes or until they spring back slightly when touched. Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack or serve hot. | ||
To test done-ness, first peek through the oven window with the light on. If the sides are starting to crack, open the oven and very lightly touch the middle of one. If it jiggles, gently close the oven and bake an additional 2-5 minutes. Test again by very lightly touching one. It is done when it springs back gently or leaves a slight identation. If it is very firm it is over-done. |
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Mini-Muffins Sometimes if there is batter left over I make and freeze a few mini muffins. They are great last minute treat! |
Freezing This batter freezes very well when separated into a muffin pan lined with cupcake wrappers. Follow the instructions up until baking. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until solid. Remove from pan and store in a zipper-lock bag. To bake, place them back in the muffin pan and bake as directed, adding a few extra minutes because they are frozen. They bake perfectly from a frozen state. I have not tried to defrost them first, but I think it would work fine. |
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Problems Two pans- I have a gas oven and tried baking two muffins pans side by side. The bottoms burnt badly while the tops were underdone. I think the pans were preventing the heat from circulating, so most of the heat was at the bottom. I don’t know if this would happen in an electric oven. It’s nice and not often when the simplest method yields the best results. I tried the following to see what would happen. I was glad to find out both extra steps failed! Cold butter- I tried once to cream the butter and sugars. Surprisingly, the muffins sunk in the middle and weren’t as light and tender. This is strange because the opposite often happens in cookies and cakes. Beaten eggs whites- I have also tried to beat the egg white separately and fold it in. The batter is too thick and became over-worked. |
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Apple Bran Muffins 4. With the electric mixer on low, add the dry mixture. Mix until (1)just blended. Using a (2)ice-cream-scoop, scoop batter into prepared muffin tin. This is a thick batter and will mound slightly above the liner. Bake 17-20 minutes or until they (3)spring back slightly when touched. Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack or serve hot. Mini-Muffins These make great mini-muffins as well. Use mini-muffin liners and follow the same instructions. Decrease the baking time by 2-5 minutes. Freezing This batter freezes very well when separated into a muffin pan lined with cupcake wrappers. Follow the instructions up until baking. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until solid. Remove from pan store in a zipper-lock bag. To bake, place them back in the muffin pan and bake as directed, adding a few extra minutes because they are frozen. They bake perfectly from a frozen state. I have not tried to defrost them first, but I think it would work fine. Notes |
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Recipes
