Applesauce Spice Muffins

After coming home from a weekend out of town, we have this in our fridge: beer, mustard, pickles, a bag of carrots.  Well, that's not exactly all that we have in there, but I definitely saw a tumbleweed go by on the shelf...  Moral of the story: no breakfast food in the house and no desire to run to the store.  So what to do at 10 pm?  Make muffins!!  I hopped on the internet at about 9:00 to search for an easy muffin recipe...half an hour later I found one that did not involve "beating butter and sugar until fluffy"...I'm not making cookies here!  I wanted a "throw-in-the-bowl-and-stir" kind of recipe.  I tweaked the Applesauce Spice Muffins (found on epicurious.com) recipe a bit.  I used up some frozen cubes of apple and pear puree that Luke has zero interest in. You would probably just use normal unsweetened applesauce OR (I'm so excited to try this!!) you could use pumpkin puree. OR...mashed banana! OR...zucchini, OR carrot! The variations on this quick recipe are making me so giddy!  Here's the lazy woman's modified recipe:


Applesauce Spice Muffins
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, November 2003 via epicurious.com

Makes 12.

For muffins:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, melted (slightly cooled, or not...I am inpatient)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce (or pureed pear, pumpkin, zucchini, carrot)
For topping:
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Lazy, Easy Directions:
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flour through salt).  To bowl, add applesauce, eggs, and brown sugar and whisk together just until ingredients are incorporated.  Slowly pour in melted butter, and stir into batter.

Pour batter into lined muffin tin. Sprinkle each with sugar and spice topping.

Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

**Make ahead option:  Fill muffin cups and cover with plastic wrap.  Don't sprinkle with topping yet.  Put pan in fridge overnight, or until you want to bake them.  Before baking, sprinkle topping on muffins.  Bake for 23 minutes at 400 degrees (a little longer than the regular directions since the batter will be cold) and have some delicious, warm, fresh muffins for breakfast!

Sad, blurry cellphone picture.