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You cannot get anymore basic than corn muffins, am I right? I am not knocking them at all. In fact, this is something I like about corn muffins. Sometimes I just want to make something that is halfway between a breakfast and a dessert…so I can still call it a breakfast and not feel too guilty.
And sometimes I will literally make put together a new recipe just to use up a particular item in my pantry.
This recipe was born of these two reasons combined. I had a lot of cornmeal in my pantry and really no use for it. Corn muffins are the obvious thing that comes to mind. Then I got to thinking about how I could make them a little more interesting and unique while using up another item I had too much of—apples.
I love apples, especially with some good homemade peanut butter, but I had a few on the soft side and didn’t want to see them go to waste. Though honestly we “waste” pretty much nothing in our house. If we cannot eat it or it’s a little less fresh than we’d want to eat, it either goes to the chickens (only good stuff guys, nothing moldy or gross), it goes into the freezer for vegetable stock (mainly the stuff the chickens can’t eat, onions, scraps not worthwhile for them, etc) or it goes into our composting bins.
To add to the ease of this corn muffin recipe, it’s super straightforward. Aside from chopping an apple, you just mix your ingredients together, pour into a tray, and bake. I cannot emphasize how much I love recipes that are no fuss, mix and throw in the oven.
Serving and Storing
I can see this being a perfect fall recipe because of the obvious apple and cinnamon combination. Although, these muffins are great for any time you just feel like baking something a little different, simple, and satisfying. These are A-MAZING when served warm/with a little vegan butter, but can be kept for several days to week when stored in a airtight container in the fridge. I still highly recommend popping them in the microwave for 15-20 seconds if eating the next day—really kicks up the comfort level a notch—but whatever you prefer.
Greasing the Pan vs. Paper Cups
I tried both of these methods and by far prefer using the cupcake/muffin paper cups. I read that if you grease the tins the edges get a pleasant crispiness to them, so I wanted to at least give that a shot. Unfortunately, it was really difficult to remove the muffins once they were done. I really did a number on them, having to pry them out with a butter knife. Not ideal.
For the second batch, I lined the tray with paper cups, and that made the muffins much easier to remove from the tins. You just loosen them up a bit with a butter knife, then you can grab the edge of one of the paper cups and pull them right out.
Maybe if I had let them cool more or tried flipping the tray over that would have worked better for removal, but if you want to go the easy, no fuss route, just use some muffin cups.
So without further ado, here is my apple cinnamon corn muffin recipe. Please drop me a comment if you try it or have any questions.
Apple Cinnamon Corn Muffins
A twist on a classic corn muffin, perfect for the fall or anytime you a simple breakfast/dessert that's a little different.
Ingredients
- 2 cup almond milk or any non-dairy milk of choice
- 1/2 cup grapeseed oil or other oil of choice
- 1 1/2 cup cornmeal
- 10 tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 large apple I used a Rosalynn but any kind will do.
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
Optional
- coconut oil or another oil for greasing muffin tins
- vegan butter cut in half and spread while warm
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F. If you are greasing your muffin tins, do so now. Otherwise, line your tin/s with paper muffin cups. *See Notes
- Chop the apple into small pieces. If your apple is small you may want to use two.
- Add cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir till combined.
- Stir the milk and oil together in a small mixing bowl or liquid measuring cup.
- Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and stir until just combined.
- Fold in your chopped apple until just incorporated.
- Using a ladle or small measuring cup, pour the batter into your muffin tins/paper cups. Fill to the top for nice size muffin tops (my prefernce) or a little lower for smaller muffins.
- Bake the muffins for 22 to 24 minutes. (Toothpick inserted should come out clean.)
Notes
I tried two methods for baking these. I greased the pan on the first batch but getting them out of the tins was difficult and I mangled quite a few. For the second batch, I lined the tray with paper cups and it made the muffins nice and easy to remove.
