Still Behind

Remember Christmas? You know, that big holiday that was over a month ago? Yeah, I still haven't posted what we did for Christmas breakfast. Better late than never. I guess. We were in such a hurry to get to the presents that we just tucked in to breakfast and I didn't even take a picture of the table set up. I did manage to shoot a quick pic before I put the goodies in the oven to warm though. I made my usual Sweet & Spicy Bacon- that's a requirement according to my brother and his wife. Additionally I made cheap, fast and easy sausage rolls- no real recipe there, refrigerated crescent rolls, shredded cheese and small smoked sausages. Voila! And then for the sweeter side of the menu I made Deb's Whole Wheat Apple Muffins. On half of them I added a topping, and the other half I left plain to avoid possible allergens for my niece.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen; Makes about 16













1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk or yogurt
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Grease and flour a muffin tin and set aside.
• Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.
• Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400 degrees, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

My notes: I used buttermilk, and don't worry about the curdling. I mixed it in the first time like I was folding clouds into the batter and it still curdled. Everything comes back together when you add the dry ingredients, so it doesn't really make a difference how gentle you are. I skipped the brown sugar on the plain muffins because I didn't really want to coat my niece's muffins in sugar. The topping for the other muffins is comprised of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and chopped pecans- basically a version of what I did for the Peach Muffins but with more oats and pecans. Since I wasn't doing the brown sugar topping I simple cooked the muffins at 400 degrees for 17-20 minutes. Much easier than me remembering to turn the temp down. Because I just wouldn't remember, ha.