Apple Butter Quinoa Muffins
Hi friends! I’m currently admist the frankenstorm of 2012 (aka hurricane Sandy) and luckily we still have power and warm water, so I’m trying to go about my business as I normally do on Monday. Usually when there is a crazy storm approaching, I try to get a few items baked so we have something to eat besides canned tuna, which my husband stocks up on y2k style. So last night I whipped a batch of super healthy apple butter quinoa muffins.
Oh my gawd, why have I never put quinoa in a baked good before? There are three reasons for this recipe. One, it was inspired by last week’s episode of Parenthood. Julie made the family 3 dozen batches of quinoa muffins because Kristina was having surgery. So, while watching, I thought “quinoa? In muffins?” Then while browsing the interwebs, I found this recipe for apple, pecan and quinoa muffins and was intrigued again. Lastly, I had a big jar of Musselman’s Apple Bar that was sent to me that was begging to be used.
Apple butter should be called “crack,” or “herion” or your drug of choice because holy crap, it’s good. The lovely folks at Musselman’s sent me a huge jar, a spurtle (which I have not been using to scoop apple butter directly into my mouth) and a few recipes they whipped up using the butter! The recipes were apple butter marinated chicken, sweet potato casserole and apple butter monkey bread. All of which looked amazing and I will try if I don’t die of apple butter consumption related complications this week.
As yummy as the recipes sounded, I really wanted to get creative with this stuff in my baking. So, I took Julia and Christal’s suggestions to make quinoa muffins and whipped up a batch with a few tablespoons of Musselman’s crack butter and applesauce.
These fluffy little muffins have no real butter and no oil in them whatsoever and only have 3 grams of fat per muffin! And they are still as moist as Paula Deen’s muffins made with 14 sticks of butter. Plus, the addition of quinoa is a great source of fiber and protein so one of these bad boys will keep you full well into lunchtime. Or keep you full while you’re hiding in the basement because a B named Sandy is terrorizing you.
Apple Butter Quinoa Muffins
Yields 12 muffins. Recipe adapted from Nutritionist in the Kitch.
Prep time: 8 minutes
Cook time: 15 – 18 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 1 1/4 cup cooked quinoa
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- Dash of salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 2 tablespoons Musselman’s apple butter
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup low fat milk
- 1/2 cup chopped granny smith apple
- 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Liberally grease a 12 cavity muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray or line with paper liners. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix flour, quinoa, sugar, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice together. Mix well. Stir in apple butter, unsweetened applesauce, egg and low-fat milk until fully combined. Stir in apples and walnuts.
- Fill cavities about 2/3 – 3/4 the way full with batter.
- Bake for 13 – 15 minutes, or until deep brown. Serve warm with butter and enjoy!
Nutritional information per muffin:
Calories: 117.25
Fat: 3 grams
Carbohydrates: 20.91 grams
Fiber: 2.8 grams
Protein: 3.56 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 3
Musselman’s Apple Butter sent me a sample of this product at no cost to review. However, all opinions, ideas and photographs are all my own.
Tags:apple butter recipes, healthy recipes, low fat recipes, muffin recipes, quinoa recipes
I'm also fighting with Sandy...thankfully, I have lots of peanut butter and beer to hold me over if the power does go out (which, hopefully, it won't because I can only eat so much pb and beer before I lose it!).