Baking is one of my favorite things to do with my free time and admittedly the only thing I’m pretty confident about doing in the kitchen. Fall is the season where I find myself baking a lot, and two of my favorite fall flavors – pumpkin and apples –are often featured in one of my sweet creations. With Halloween coming up, I thought it would be fun to “treat” my son and his class with a fall-flavored snack that didn’t send the kiddos into a sugar coma. With my little baking buddy’s help, we whipped up these Pumpkin and Piñata Apple Mini Muffins in no time at all. They are moist, sweet, and spicy with lots of pumpkin flavor. The perfect fall treat (or on-the-go breakfast) for kids and adults alike.
Apples are a great natural sweetener to use when baking, and in my opinion, cut down on amount of actual sugar needed to sweeten up a recipe. I particularly like Piñata apples because they offer a nice balance of sweet and tart flavors and won’t break down too much when cooked. Piñata is also a favorite snacking apple in my house so I was glad to be able to buy one apple to fit multiple needs. I loosely followed this recipe from Taste of Home for my version of Pumpkin Apple Mini Muffins, but made quite a few modifications in order to use the ingredients I had on hand and change things up a bit. The use of Greek yogurt was one modification. I like using it in baking as it keeps the batter moist and allows you to cut down on the amount of butter needed. For the actual baking of the muffins, I set them on the center rack for about 15 minutes, followed by a brief time on broil to ensure a perfectly golden brown and moist muffin.