and the apple strikes again.

Ally, here.

I returned to the apples this week after my mother-in-law sent me a link to Southern Living's favorite apple recipes. After drooling over all of them, I decided on the caramel-apple muffins. And what a great decision that was!

We've been suffering from a bit of a drought here in Lexington, but the heavens finally opened at the beginning of this week and the rains came down. So the husband and I awoke on Monday morning to the beautiful sound of rain falling on the trees and a wonderful temperature far below 90 degrees. A cool, relaxing morning such as this deserved a warm, slow breakfast. So I got to baking.

And let me tell you, these muffins were good. And warm. And gooey. And I consider them a health food (an apple a day keeps the doctor away).

I adapted the recipe to meet my needs (and to keep the husband and myself from consuming 24 muffins in two days).

Here's what you'll need:

for the muffins:
-1 cup sugar
-1/2 cup canola oil
-2 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
-1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-shake of salt

-1 1/2 cups finely chopped apple (about 1 large apple)
-1 cup pecan pieces (you can add more or less pecans as your taste buds permit)

for the frosting:
-1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
-1/4 cup light brown sugar
-1/4 cup butter
-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Here's what to do:

the muffins:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan.

2. Peel and finely chop apple(s).

3. In a large bowl, stir sugar, canola oil, eggs, and vanilla.

4. In another bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Once combined, add this to sugar mixture and stir.

5. Fold in finely chopped apples and pecans.

6. Divide into muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes.


the frosting:
1. Put all frosting ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until the frosting reaches a pudding-like consistency.

2. Remove from heat.

3. Poke a hole (about the width of your finger) in the top and the muffin drizzle the frosting over muffins. The hole will catch more frosting and add some extra excitement to every bite! Sprinkle with pecan pieces.

I used a super cute mini-bundt cake pan to make my muffins extra fun. Feel free to do the same! You're going to love it!