Whole Wheat Apple Oatmeal Crumble Muffins

I'm all about apples lately. I'm churning out apple sauce, apple cake and now these apple oatmeal crumble muffins. I got this vegan baking book which has opened my eyes to apple sauce as a fat substitute. And since I'm watching the calories, I thought I'd try a couple of bakes with apple sauce. I was pleasantly surprised, although some recipes were more succesful than others. Apple is always a bit tricky to bake with as it is very moist, so you really have to be careful that it won't turn out all mushy. These muffins are vegan, but you can subsititute with non-vegan ingredients.

Out of all the bakes I've experimented with, I've had the most success with this The Iron You recipe. I love The Iron You, Mike always has the best "clean" recipes and I cook from his blog at least once a week. Now for these muffins, the batter will stick to the muffin liners slightly, but a regular muffin will do that as well. I love how you come across the apple pieces as you eat the muffin, it's chunks of fruity goodness.  Oh and they're only 144 calories a piece, how about that?

The recipe calls for unsweetened apple sauce, which is so easy to cook up yourself! I do it all the time. You peel, core and chop up some apples, add some cinnamon and cook them in a bit of water for 20 minutes or until they're mushy enough to mash. I use 1/4 cup (60ml) of water per apple. You can add all sorts of things to your apple sauce mixture, such as lemon juice if your apples are somewhat sweet, or raisins for a luxury version. And since apples are always on sale in my supermarket, it's a lot cheaper than buying it pre-made. Can you believe the unsweetened version is actually more expensive than the sweetened in the supermarket? It's cray-cray.

Recipe Whole Wheat Apple Oatmeal Crumble Muffins

Moist, vegan muffins with chunks of apple and a crispy crumble topping

Makes: 12 regular sized muffins

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Total time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

140gr unsweetened apple sauce

110gr brown sugar

1 vegan egg (flax) 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

125ml vegan buttermilk 

150gr whole wheat flour

150gr apples, peeled and diced

55gr coconut oil, melted

6 tbsp oats

50gr brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 165C/325F. Line a 12- hole muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, mix together apple sauce, sugar and flax egg until combined. Add vanilla extract, baking soda and salt until evenly dispersed. Add the buttermilk and whole wheat flour a little at a time, alternating between the two. Fold the apples into the mixture. Divide the muffin batter over the liners.

3. To make the topping, melt the coconut oil, take off the fire and add the oats, sugar and cinnamon. Mix with a wooden spoon until combined, then divide evenly over the batter. 

4. Place muffin tin on a rack in the middle of the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

5. When baked, leave muffins in the tin for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

Source: The Iron You