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    Home » Recipes » Vegetarian

    100% Whole Grain Apple Muffins

    August 16, 2023 by Casey

    Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe

    I’m always straddling the line between health food and healthy food, and these apple muffins are delightfully caught in the middle. To me, health food is the food you find at stores that smell like Patchouli. If you’ve ever stepped foot inside a Whole Foods, you know exactly the smell I’m talking about. It smells earthy and you don’t know if it’s in the good way or the bad way…

    These stores are often chock full of the trendiest foods and the foods empty of something or other–gluten, meat, lactose. They were early adopters of things like kefir and nutritional yeast, seaweed and teff flour. Don’t get me wrong, I love exploring the aisles of my neighborhood Whole Paycheck. But just because it sells health foods doesn’t mean everything there is good for us.

    Now, drumroll please for our other contestant: healthy food. You can find this anywhere: in your mom’s salad recipe, in a restaurant crostini slathered in tomatoes, in the weeds growing in your own backyard. In my humble opinion, healthy food is something that sustains us without bombing our gut biomes and trashing our metabolisms. For each person, healthy could mean something different.

    The muffin

    These apple muffins are FULL of health foods: hemp hearts, wheat germ, sesame seeds, and whole wheat bulgur. But do these ingredients make this muffin healthy? Given the amount of butter and sweetness added, not really. Still, there’s never been a tastier way to get in all that fiber.

    This recipe is actually my new favorite (I really mean it this time!). It’s moist and, unlike other gummy whole wheat desserts, it’s crumbly and melts in your mouth. The whole wheat flour isn’t just there in the absence of regular flour: it actually adds another nutty dimension to the treat, making it closer to the flavor of a graham cracker than a regular old cake muffin would be.

    The fact that my brother–the most carbohydrate-loving person I know–went back for thirds should be proof enough this muffin is a winner.

    The inspiration

    That same carbohydrate connoisseur gave me the book that inspired this recipe. Huckleberry is written by recipe designer and restauranteur Zoe Nathan, where she shares some of the magic of one of Santa Monica’s most coveted brunch spots. The recipes are Californiafied: always experimenting, committed to quality ingredients, and the kind of comfort food you’d find in a hippie grandma’s kitchen.

    Unfortunately, I never was able to eat there, since the lines were always out the door! But making the recipes from this book comes close enough to the real deal, and they’re delicious. You can tell that Nathan put so much effort into perfecting each one. A dash of this specialty item here, a tablespoon of that hard-to-find ingredient there, most recipes are not something a home cook can accomplish with a capsule pantry. But the rewards are worth it, since they make for an unforgettable bite.

    The one downside of this cookbook I’ve found is that some of the recipes have far too much fat. I’m not just talking from a health perspective but from a recipe one. Many recipes I’ve made, especially the recipe for easy flaky dough, seemed to get greasy but not flaky. I’ve made pastry dough successfully with a volumetric flour to butter ratio of 3:1, but this recipe used a ratio of 2:1. My guess would be that the issue comes from translating the recipes from bakery oven to home oven.

    Adaptations

    I made this recipe for apple muffins with the foods I had on hand. I substituted out items I didn’t have Also, I reduced the canola oil in favor of more butter (yum!), while decreasing the total fat. The second apple makes it possible to do so without drying out the crumb.

    The recipe

    Step 1: Grease 12 muffin tins and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

    Step 2: Mix together the ingredients for the crumb topping: whole wheat bulgur, hemp hearts, oats, whole wheat flour, honey, brown sugar, sesame seeds, salt, and softened butter.

    Step 3: Toast the wheat germ in a small skillet over medium low heat. Mix together the dry ingredients for the muffins. That is, the whole wheat flour, almond flour, toasted wheat germ, sesame seeds, whole wheat bulgur, hemp hearts, rolled oats, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, turbinado sugar, and salt.

    Step 4: Mix together the wet ingredients in a separate bowl: maple syrup, buttermilk, canola oil, melted butter, egg white, and vanilla. 

    Step 5: Using a box grater, grate two peeled apples.

    Step 6: Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Then, fold in the apples.

    Step 7: Divide the muffin batter among the 12 greased muffin tins. Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top of each muffin.

    Step 8: Bake the muffins for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

    Are these apple muffins still too healthy for you? Check out this recipe for beignets or this one for butter pecan ice cream. 😋 Not healthy enough? Try this lighter recipe for baked apples.

    Enjoy, and leave me a comment to let me know how it goes!

    Print
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    apple muffins on plate with green apples

    100% Whole Grain Apple Muffins

    • Author: Casey
    • Prep Time: 20 minutes
    • Cook Time: 20 minutes
    • Total Time: 40 minutes
    • Yield: 12 muffins 1x
    • Category: Baking
    • Method: Baking
    • Cuisine: California
    • Diet: Vegetarian
    Print Recipe
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    Description

    Although these muffins are made with all whole grain ingredients and two whole apples, they still make for a decadent, buttery, toothsome bite. 


    Ingredients

    Scale

    For the Topping: 

    • ½ cup oats
    • ¼ cup whole wheat flour
    • 3 tablespoons butter, softened
    • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
    • 1 tablespoon honey
    • 1 tablespoon whole wheat bulgur
    • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
    • 1 tablespoon hemp hearts
    • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt 

    For the Muffins: 

    • 1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour
    • 2 tablespoons almond flour
    • 1 tablespoon wheat germ
    • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
    • 1 tablespoon whole wheat bulgur
    • 1 tablespoon hemp hearts 
    • 1 tablespoon rolled oats 
    • 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
    • ½ teaspoon baking powder
    • ½ teaspoon baking soda
    • ¼ cup brown sugar 
    • ¼ cup turbinado sugar
    • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
    • 6 tablespoons melted, unsalted butter
    • ⅓ cup maple syrup 
    • ½ cup buttermilk
    • ¼ cup canola oil
    • 1 egg white 
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla 
    • 2 large green apples, peeled

    Instructions

    1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease or spray 12 nonstick muffin cups. 
    2. Using your hand or a fork, combine all ingredients under “for the topping” until they form coarse crumbs. Set aside. 
    3. In a small skillet on medium low, add the wheat germ and toast until it turns just slightly brown and develops a nutty aroma. Remove from heat immediately and place in a large bowl. 
    4. In that large bowl, add the rest of the dry ingredients under “for the muffins:” whole wheat flour, almond flour, sesame seeds, whole wheat bulgur, hemp hearts, rolled oats, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, turbinado sugar, and salt. Mix until blended.
    5. In a medium bowl, add all the wet ingredients from “for the muffins:” melted butter, maple syrup, buttermilk, canola oil, egg white, and vanilla. Whisk until blended. 
    6. Using a box grater, grate your apples. 
    7. Add the wet ingredients to the large bowl with the dry ingredients and mix just until blended. Fold in the apples and any juices they might have produced. 
    8. Divide the batter among your 12 muffin cups. You can fill them fairly liberally, as they do not rise much (I filled mine about ¾ full). Then, divide the crumb topping evenly among the muffins. 
    9. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. When the muffins are cooled, run a knife around the edges of each muffin and pull them out. They should come out neatly.
    10. Eat your muffins in two days, or freeze and reheat in the air fryer.  

    Notes

    This ingredient list looks really complicated, but it can be altered in so many different ways. For the “add ins,” I chose to use whole wheat bulgur, sesame seeds, hemp hearts, and wheat germ, but feel free to use what you have on hand: millet, grated toasted coconut, chia seeds, poppy seeds, ground flax meal, flax seeds, bran, or bee pollen could all work well. 

    When it comes to the honey and maple syrup, they’re interchangeable with each other and with sucanat, brown rice syrup, and agave as well. 

    Turbinado sugar is one of my favorites, but you could opt to use regular sugar or even more brown sugar, if desired. 

    I’ve used both olive oil and canola oil in this recipe and have found both to be good. 

    I don’t recommend using whole wheat pastry flour of all-purpose flour for this recipe. 

    Keywords: vegetarian, muffins, apple, apple muffins, whole wheat, dessert, snack, bakery, baking, sweets, healthy, healthy-ish

    Did you make this recipe?

    Tag @pithandrind on Instagram and hashtag it #pithandrind

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    Hi, I'm Casey, the founder and creator of Pith and Rind! Welcome to your home for delicious recipes showcasing whole ingredients, ancient grains, rich fruits and vegetables, and so much more! You'll find recipes here that are naturally plant-based, often gluten free, mostly healthy, and always fresh.

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