Apple Sauce Muffins

It's that lovely time of year when apples hang heavy on the trees .... or in the case of windfalls, drop off leaving us lots of fruit to enjoy.  Soon you've had enough apple crumble, apple pie, and just plain apples but still here are more to eat.  Here's a little recipe that uses apple sauce, easy to make from those windfalls - just peel, slice, and cook apples on a low heat until they become soft and fall apart.  

APPLE SAUCE MUFFINS 

Heat the oven to 180C/350F  Line a six hole muffin tin with paper muffin liners.

1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a small bowl. 

1/4 cup butter or baking margarine
1/2 cup soft brown sugar - lightly packed 
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
3/4 cup apple sauce

Cream together the butter and brown sugar.  Add the egg and mix well.  Stir in the apple sauce and vanilla extract. 

Add the dry ingredient and mix until all the dry ingredients have been absorbed and the batter is smooth.

Spoon the batter into the paper muffin liners, filling about 3/4 full.  

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until a tester comes away without any wet batter. Do not over bake. 

Remove the muffins from the baking tin and place them on a wire rack to cool.  You can dust the apple sauce muffins with icing sugar, or frost them with a bit of cream cheese frosting.  Today I made a simple drizzle:

Mix together-

1/4 cup icing sugar
1 or 2 teaspoons milk 

Drizzle over cooled muffins.  

Store any left over muffins in an airtight container.  Enjoy!