Pumpkin Apple Muffins

We had a few visitors this past weekend, namely John's brothers. In effort to be a good hostess, I made breakfast one morning. Well, sort of. It wasn't a pancakes-sausage-eggs type of breakfast. I don't do those.

I do muffins.





And this recipe is easy. Embarrassingly easy, actually.



Believe it or not, I actually had all of the appropriate ingredients on hand. One of which was an errant box of yellow cake mix I purchased on a whim and never used for the whim and had vague ideas in the back of my mind to use for some sort of  peanut butter bundt cake concoction. Well, it became the base for these muffins.

That's right, a cake mix.


So are these muffins breakfast or dessert?

I added quick-cooking oats, so I say breakfast.

Plus, there was a can of pumpkin puree I'd purchased to make -- I actually don't even know. Something pumpkiny.



I had plans to sift some flour and baking soda and sugar together to make the muffins, but you know, it was a Saturday morning and I needed some coffee.

Sometimes, the boxed cake mix wins.

I used the last of my apple butter in this mix, but you could just double the water, and they'll turn out fine. But then they'll just be Pumpkin Muffins.

These muffins are super moist -- like little pudding cakes. Plus they're sweet from the apple butter and pumpkin and warm and spicy from the cinnamon. The apple butter I added had some clove and allspice running through it as well, but if you don't have any, you could throw a couple of pinches of them in the mix too to boost the spice factor. But really, they're perfect as is -- heavy and dense with fall flavors. A great breakfast on a cool morning.



Or dessert.

PS: Wren likes them, too.

Pumpkin Apple Muffins

by at the red table

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Keywords: bake bread breakfast dessert snack apple pumpkin

6016818

Ingredients (20 muffins)

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 c pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/2 c apple butter
• 1/2 c water (if you don't have apple butter, use 1 cup water instead)
• 4 tsp cinnamon, divided
• 1/3 c sugar
• 1/4 c quick-cooking oats

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, stir together cake mix, pumpkin, apple butter (if using), water and 2 teaspoons cinnamon together until well incorporated.

In a separate, smaller bowl, mix together 2 teaspoons cinnamon, sugar and quick-cooking oats.

Spoon muffin batter into muffin tins that have been sprayed with cooking spray or lined with paper liners. Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full of batter and top with a few pinches of the cinnamon-sugar-oat combo.

Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Powered by Recipage