Recently some friends of ours brought us some wonderful apples from North Carolina and they are what inspired me to make these scrumptious muffins. Also, we are headed to North Carolina for a wedding next weekend, and I always like to have something quick and easy that I don’t have to cook to serve for breakfast. These muffins will be perfect. I’ll just pack them up in a resealable plastic bag and freeze and they will be ready to go. That is, if there are any left. Did I mention how good they are?
To begin, gather your ingredients which are: apples, dried cranberries (Craisins), OJ, granulated and brown sugar, butter, pecans, baking soda, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon and ground cloves.
Combine OJ, sugars, shredded apples, Craisins, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, add the juice of 1 lemon and cool completely. This mixture itself is delicious! It tastes a little like supercharged applesauce. I couldn’t stop tasting it!
Measure flour and baking soda and mix well. Toss with roasted pecan pieces.
Add the cooled wet mixture to the flour mixture and stir until blended. And, yes, that’s flour all over my countertop, I’m a messy cook…..
Spray your muffin pan liberally with Pam Baking Spray to ensure your muffins don’t stick. Then use an ice-cream scoop to fill your muffin pan.
I may have gone a little overboard with the spray, but I wasn’t using paper muffin cups and I didn’t want anything to stick.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes and voila, they look and smell amazing!
| Cook Time | 20 minutes |
| Servings | muffins |
- 2 1/2 cups peeled and shredded apples About 4 medium
- 2 cups Craisins
- 1 cup orange juice
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tsp grated nutmeg
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 cup roasted and chopped pecans
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Ingredients
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- Combine the apples, Craisins, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and orange juice in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil. Remove pan from the heat, add the juice of 1 lemon and mix well. Cool completely.
- In another bowl, measure the flour and add the baking soda. Mix well. Add roasted pecans and mix. Add the wet ingredients and stir just until blended.
- Spray your muffin pan with Pam Baking Spray. Using an ice-cream scoop, fill the muffin cups. Bake 20 minutes or until done.
To roast your pecans, put them in a single layer on a sheet pan and roast approximately 15-20 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Start checking on them after 15 minutes, they can go from not quite done, to burnt in no time.
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