Apple Muffins

I've been trying to be better about actually cooking breakfast instead of having a bowl of cereal every morning. So I've been experimenting with different recipes. This one I found at foodnetwork.com and it came from Ellie Krieger (she's the one that does the dieting/healthful cooking shows). You can find the original recipe here, but as always, I made a couple of changes to the recipe and that is what I have posted. These were really moist and weren't like most "diet" muffins I've had. They weren't uber sweet, which I look for in a breakfast muffin (although, I must say that I am a sucker for chocolate chocolate chip muffins! :) ). They reminded me of a pumpkin muffin actually, not in taste but the smell was that of fall baking. And, they were really filling! My husband and I each ate 4, and were stuffed. Kiddos like them, too! My 1-year old son ate a whole one all by himself. I will be making these again.

Apple Muffins
adapted from the recipe by Ellie Krieger

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1-3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Golden Delicious Apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4" pieces (you could use any good baking apple; I used a Fuji apple since that is what I had)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-capacity muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, whisk the remaining 3/4 cup sugar and oil until combined. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk in the applesauce and vanilla.

Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined. Gently stir in the apple chunks.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pecan mixture. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the muffins to loosen them and unmold. Cool completely on the rack.