I wonder what it means that the first two recipes of 2010 are breakfast treats? I am guessing that getting out of bed on these dark, cold, winter mornings requires something more tempting than my usual bowl of cereal or piece of fruit. These Apple Cider muffins will do the trick and have had me looking forward to breakfast for the past couple of days. And lunch. And whenever else I manage to fit them in. They are simple and lovely and keep well. The texture is best on the day you make them but the flavor is best the next day, which I think is a good thing—they evolve.
There is a new publication that might be of interest to you. Remedy Quarterly is a beautiful little journal out of Brooklyn, NY. Kelly Carámbula of Eat Make Read is one of the folks producing Remedy and if you are familiar with her wonderful blog you won’t be surprised by how nice the magazine is. You might also be interested because there just happens to be an interview with me in the first issue— complete with a recipe! I am so happy to be part of what I hope is a food publication with a long and bright future. You can order your copy (or subscribe) HERE.
Apple Cider Muffins (from the amazing Karen DeMasco)
- Unsalted butter, for the muffin tin (optional)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 3/4 cup grapeseed oil
- 3 large eggs
- 2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup apple cider
- 3/4 cups sour cream
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 crisp baking apples, such as Granny Smith or Mutsu, peeled, cored, coarsely grated, and drained, juices reserved and used as part of the cider measurement
- 1 tablespoon Demerara sugar
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously butter a standard 12-cup muffin tin or line it with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and oil. Add the eggs and whisk to combine. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a third bowl, whisk together the apple cider, sour cream, and vanilla.
Add one third of the flout mixture and one third of the apple cider mixture to the sugar mixture, folding with a spatula just to combine. Add the rest of the flour and cider mixtures in two additions stirring just until combined. Fold in the grated apple, and then divide the batter evenly among with prepared muffin cups, filling each cup three quarters of the way. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the Demerara sugar.
Bake, rotating the muffin tin halfway through, until the muffins spring back to the touch, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Then turn out the muffins from the pan and let them cool completely on the wire rack.
These muffins will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
The Ordinary Vegetarian says:
January 7th, 2010 at 10:17 am
These sound really lovely, and much more exciting than the apple that I brought for my mid-morning snack today.
Cate says:
January 7th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Muffins always help me get out of bed – all year round! We inherited a plethora of apples from relatives who were going out of town, and this is exactly what I want to do with them!
lo says:
January 7th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
These look delicious. And I’m pretty sure there’s some local apple cider still hanging around here somewhere. Bet these are just fantastic when they’re all warm and fresh from the oven!
Tina says:
January 7th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
I love that it’s OK to eat tiny cakes for breakfast and call them muffins. I’m definitely trying those!
The Duo Dishes says:
January 7th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
No apple cider or apples on hand, but there’s apple butter! Wonder if a substitution would work?
megan says:
January 7th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
oh my god
i’m making these first thing tomorrow morning
Megan Gordon says:
January 7th, 2010 at 11:11 pm
You’re onto something…there’s definitely, for me anyway, something about morning foods and devoting a little time to something special. I think we’re all just so done with gooey, major holiday desserts, so it’s a bit of an excuse to bake again. These look lovely.
Charles G Thompson says:
January 7th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Muffins are such comfort food – and those look so good. I subscribed to Remedy and look forward to reading your interview!
Elena says:
January 8th, 2010 at 7:25 am
Happy to have met you last night at Purple Pig, happy to have shared such a great dining experience. I love food blogs and think this one is so fantastic. I love your recipes and your pictures!
Tim says:
January 8th, 2010 at 7:30 am
Ah! Elena! So excited you found me here. Last night was really lovely and you both were great. Hopefully we will run into each other again soon! (and hopefully when that happens there will again be olive oil ice cream delivered to the table!)
Elena says:
January 8th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
I want to eat olive oil ice cream every day for the rest of my life. . .
Anjuli says:
January 9th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Thanks for the recipe – I made these this morning! They are delicious and moist! Yum!
kit says:
January 9th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Question: The batter was very very liquidy and they ended up making closer to 24 muffins. Anyone else with this problem?
Tim says:
January 9th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Anjuli- Glad you liked them!
Elizabeth- Thanks for the nice message- I am glad you found me!
Kit- My batter wasn’t very, very liquidy but I was able to get 18 muffins. The original recipe seems to be written for a muffin tin that holds a cup of batter per muffin, which I don’t have. Mine are smaller. So, I am guessing that is why we are ending up with extra batter? But I didn’t view that as a problem since it just meant more muffins. Did you bake yours?
kit says:
January 9th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
i filled one 12 muffin tin with the batter as it was, then did a second set ….added more flour (about 1/2 c), shredded unsweetened coconut (1/3 c), and raisins, and baked them all together. They all smelled amazing while baking. Original recipe was nice, a little “oily”. Second set was more cakey, very light. Both taste good, but I think i’d do something in between next time. and halve the recipe.
I think you must be right about the size of the muffin tin. It would be good if the recipe specified bec. most 12 muffin tins seem to be more like 1/2 cup capacity. thanks for the response!
kelly says:
January 13th, 2010 at 10:23 am
thanks tim! i’m so happy to have you’re interview in RQ! oh my goodness… the coffee cake is unbelievable. if this recipe is anywhere near as good, sign me up!
Nicole says:
January 13th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
They look delicious. However, I did not need another excuse to buy this book! :)
mara says:
January 16th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
I recently got this cookbook and made the coffe cake muffins, but after seeing you post about these, I had to make the apple cider ones this morning. They were great, glad this got me to make them. I definitely got way more than 12 muffins too.
Rose says:
February 1st, 2010 at 5:09 pm
I made these with cherry cider instead of apple and I sprinkled the tops with some praline powder left over from the Aurora Tart recipe.
Gail says:
February 14th, 2010 at 8:39 am
Great recipes and writing. I love reading your blog. Thank you.
Ngoc says:
March 14th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
This was amazing as muffins, but I think I may like it better as a sheet cake (got 12 standard muffins + 8×8 cake). Kept the cake plain this time so it could be a better excuse for breakfast, but can imagine it as a simple dessert with a cinnamon-y glaze of some sort. :)
LK says:
October 11th, 2012 at 11:22 am
Such a great idea, but I found when I made them that the muffins were both too egg-y (actually tasted like egg) and too oily. Batter also made closer to 24 muffins. 2 eggs should probably be enough for one batch of muffins, and maybe butter would work better, or at least reducing the oil. Would probably scale back in a few ways if I tried again.
Tim says:
October 11th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
Hi LK- Thanks for checking in! I made these again recently and didn’t encounter any of your problems. Not sure what happened. The proportions are pretty standard for a quick bread recipe. If you try a scaled down version and it is successful- let us know!
Amy says:
January 11th, 2013 at 4:42 pm
Hello! These sound lovely. Quick question: do you mean alcoholic cider or fresh pressed apple juice? I am checking as in her apple cider caramel recipe, Deb of Smitten Kitchen explains that she actually means the latter, which we just called fresh pressed apple juice or cloudy apple juice in th UK, not cider.