Apple Coffee Cake Muffins

One way to cut grocery costs is to make breakfast items from scratch instead of purchasing expensive convenience items such as cold cereals and granola bars. Now, that does not mean that I never buy those items myself, but I do wait until they are on sale and have a coupon.

Some of the easiest things to make are pancakes, waffles, and muffins. It is super simple to spend an hour on the weekend making a triple batch and then freezing the leftovers to use during the week. Oatmeal is another inexpensive, healthy breakfast food that I keep on hand. The boys only eat it when I put it in something (such as muffins or cookies), but my husband and I love a bowl of oatmeal in the morning. I buy the traditional oats, add some milk, toss in the microwave for three minutes, and then stir in either peanut butter or yogurt. It really keeps me filled up until lunchtime. I've been meaning to try a recipe for Baked Oatmeal that Erin, over at $5 Dinners, posted a while back.

Muffins are definitely a family favorite. I am always trying out new ingredients in my muffins, such as my Positively Pumpkin Muffins. Yesterday morning's invention took the goodness of coffeecake and turned it into a muffin.

~ Apple Coffee Cake Muffins ~

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups wheat flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup oil

1 apple - peeled, cored, and diced

Streusel topping:

4 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 tablespoons cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter

Combine the first five dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the four wet ingredients. Add the wet to the dry and stir. Mix in the chopped apples.

Spoon batter into liberally greased muffin tins, filling them about 3/4 full.

In a small bowl, mix the first three ingredients for the streusel topping together. Then, using a pastry cutter, a fork, or your fingers, mix in the butter until you have a crumbly mixture. (*TIP* Do not use soft margarine. You will not get crumbs and it will make a mess.) Sprinkle the mixture on top of each muffin.

Bake in a 350° F oven for about fifteen minutes. This recipe makes roughly 18 muffins. You might need to coax these muffins out of the tin. Run a butter knife around the muffin to help loosen it and then gently lift it out. Normally, I just dump my muffins onto a cooling rack, but these muffins need a bit more care than that or you're going to end up with muffin tops on your cooling rack and a bunch of leftovers in your muffin tins.

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