Apple Spice and Everything Nice Muffins

*Yes, those are my muffins... a variation written below for your baking pleasure. Sidebar: don't buy those recipe cards! They're too thick and awkward... I really don't like them. 

About a thousand times a year, I lament the fact that I can never find really good muffin recipes. Like, you know those muffins you get at the coffee shop, or even from McDonald's... the big, fluffy, slightly sticky ones that are always way tastier than they probably should be? Like that. Every muffin recipe I have at home has been kind of meh. So I was really pleased when I had an insane apple-muffin craving last week and stumbled upon this wonderful recipe by Once Upon a Chef. 

My friend Kali over at Kali Kat Corner both made these on the same day, with different results (all good, though). Kali's (mostly) a vegetarian, and her blog is chock-full of amazing veg-oriented recipes. Please, take a moment and check her out. 

(...Don't worry, I'll wait. You'll be back for these amazing muffins, after all...)

Ok. Ready?

What you need:

1/2C butter
1/2C white sugar
1/4C packed brown sugar (dark)
1 egg
1C sour cream or plain yogurt
2C flour (I used AP, recipe suggested 1C each of AP and WW)
1tsp b.Powder
1tsp b.Soda
1/4tsp salt
1tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp nutmeg
1/4tsp cloves
2C peeled and diced apples (dice 'em how you wanna eat 'em)

A bit of extra brown sugar for sprinkling purposes

  

What you do:

• Preheat oven to 375
• Blend butter with both sugars until fluffy
• Blend in egg, then blend in sour cream / yogurt. Batter will look grainy.
• In separate bowl, mix dry ingredients and spices
• Add dry ingredients to wet, stirring just until blended
• Add apples and stir until blended
• Scoop batter into cupcake papers
• Sprinkle each with brown sugar
• Bake 20-25 mins or until tester comes clean
• Cool on wire rack (but eat at least one while it's warm)

Variations:

• use 2C of mashed banana instead of apple
• use a combination of mashed banana and diced apple, 2C total
• add mini chocolate chips (to taste) to any of the above
• use a combination of banana and apple AND add mini chocolate chips (I did, as pictured... So good!!)
• use mashed banana and add peanut butter chips (to taste)
• make something up and tell me all about it!

I really think this is going to make a great base recipe for all sorts of muffin types... Carrots? Berries? Mangoes!? You can always leave out the spices, too, and you'll have more of a white-cake style base... which would be great for all kinds of other applications. The sky is the limit here... enjoy!