Greening Your Breakfast: A Recipe for Winter Muffins

This is about the time of year where we are all just about fed up. The weather is by turns glum, stormy, angry, and generally ill-tempered, there’s little of the new season‘s growth to enjoy yet, and reserves of patience are at their annual low.

A freshly baked batch of muffins may not dispel all these woes, but they can certainly take the edge off.

These, we are very happy to say, are a one-bowl, mixer-free, dead easy way to brighten up your weekday afternoons or weekend mornings. The batter comes together in ten minutes and the muffins bake up in twenty more. They are loaded with healthy ingredients like applesauce and whole wheat flour, and have warm brown-sugar-and-spice undertones for a bit of comfort on a cold day. The muffins call for mixing in, well, whatever strikes your fancy or you happen to have around: for this batch we used a handful of walnuts and chopped up the one lone pear aging un-gracefully on the counter. The point is to play a bit, and use whatever’s in sight, which is convenient when you didn’t feel like going out anyway.

Applesauce Muffins

• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons of neutral vegetable oil or melted butter
• 1 1/4 cups unsweetened applesauce
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (all-purpose or pastry)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons of mixed spices (think cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, etc.)
• 1 1/2 cups of chopped nuts, fresh or dried fruit, etc.

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Oil a muffin pan.
2. Crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl and whisk them briefly to break up. Add in sugar and whisk thoroughly. Whisk in applesauce, then butter or oil.
3. Sprinkle the flour over the mixing bowl, then sprinkle remaining dry ingredients over that. Stir gently to blend. Fold in whatever chopped fruit or nuts you like.
4. Divide batter among the wells of the muffin tin and bake until the muffins are puffed and golden, about 20 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack, 5 minutes.