Apple Butter Muffins, packed with oat flour, apple butter, and cinnamon are great for busy mornings and mid-day snacking in the Fall.

Blogging is awesome for the most part, the community and my virtual friends are two things I adore the most about this gig. Somedays I have an abundance of recipe ideas floating in my head but there are times I feel uninspired and fail to create things ‘exciting enough’ to share on the blog…this is one of those weeks where I questioned my creativity and feared what if I run out of ideas to keep you guys entertained, informed, and engaged. When I started this blog almost four years ago, it was merely a place for me to write nutrition-related information I learned during my internship, but as time progressed the blog has evolved along with me, primarily becoming a little space where I connect with people, share wholesome recipes that are tested and loved, and ramble on fitness. With the year coming to an end, I am starting to think what direction I should take Food, Pleasure, and Health into the future.

Since I am not a vegan/DIY person/vegetarian/runner/baker/fashion guru  it’s hard for me to narrow it down to just one area because I dabble a little bit on everything – so I’d like to know what do YOU want to see more of? Just focus on recipes, talk more about fitness, or go on a virtual coffee date  so we talk non-recipe related-real-life stuff? I am not too crazy about giveaways/reviews so that will stay very minimum. Food, Pleasure, and Health is my creative outlet yet my inspiration comes from you guys to continue cooking, clicking, and sharing, so please kindly leave me a comment..Thank you and love you all. Now that’s finally off my chest, let’s talk about apple muffins – these beauties are adapted from Deb’s brain child Pumpkin Muffins which I fell in love with last year.

I tweaked the recipe by using oat flour, scaling down the sugar, substituting coconut oil for canola oil and most importantly apple butter is used instead of pumpkin puree (duh that’s why the name apple butter muffins). Also, I used my jumbo muffins tins rather than regular size pan (it makes 6 muffins rather than 12) because realistically who eats only one small muffin? This girl certainly does not and sometimes it’s just a hassle to carry two small muffins.

But you can most definitely use your regular size muffin pans but I doubt you will stop at just one muffin, just saying. These apple muffins are super moist (sorry there is no other way to describe it) and mildly sweet and spiced for the season although sweetness may vary depending upon the apple butter you use. There is a nice balance of apple flavor without being too overwhelming, even my non-apple butter loving friend enjoyed it which says a lot about these muffins. I used my slow cooker apple butter but feel free to use whatever apple butter you prefer. However, I highly suggest you make apple butter muffins soon before the season is over…

The original recipe was shared in 2014 and here are some updates from 2020:

• Instead of slow cooker apple butter, I used lacto-fermented apple butter. There are many different methods on making lacto-fermented apple butter and I opted for no-cook method. Simply I peeled and chopped apples and added to my food processor along with sugar, cinnamon, and water kefir to get the fermentation started. Added the apple mixture (a cross between a paste with some texture) into a glass jar with a lid and let it ferment on my counter top for 5 days. Make sure to pack the jar tightly so no air bubbles are present in the jar.

• You can use ghee, coconut oil, neutral oil, or butter interchangeably.

• I have used white sugar as well as brown sugar in this recipe and they have both worked fine.

Apple Butter Muffins

Serves: 6 large or 12 regular

Ingredients

• 1 cup oats (if using whole oats, use a food processor to grind into oats flour)

• 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon table salt

• 1 cup apple butter

• 1/3 cup melted coconut oil (ghee or other neutral oil works too)

• 2 large eggs

• 1/3 cup sugar (white or brown both works here)

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1. Pre heat the oven to 350F.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.

3. In a larger bowl, whisk together apple butter, oil, eggs and sugar and cinnamon. Pour dry ingredients to wet mix and stir until just combined. Do not over mix the batter.

4. Gently pour the batter into a lined muffin tin filling 3/4 full.

5. Bake until golden brown and tooth pick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 15-18 minutes.

6. Let the pan cool for about five minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

What brings you to Food, Pleasure, and Health? Food, Fitness, Random Talks..

What would you like to see more of (or less of)?

What kind of recipes do you want me to focus on?

Thank you – this means a lot!