Healthy muffins . . . NOT an oxymoron

I forayed into the world of whole wheat flour today, making Ellie Krieger's apple muffins. She uses whole grain pastry flour, which she claims keeps the texture lighter than regular whole wheat flour, and combines it with regular all-purpose flour. I was pleasantly surprised with the results, and I'm inclined to agree that the whole wheat pastry flour (which I used instead of whole grain) really is lighter than whole wheat flour. It was a simple enough recipe to make, and I netted 18 muffins.

In one bowl I mixed a cup of regular flour with a cup of the whole wheat pastry flour, plus baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and freshly ground nutmeg, the latter two ingredients my own creative touches. In the main bowl, I whisked together brown sugar and canola oil, eventually adding two eggs, vanilla, and unsweetened apple sauce. Then I dumped in the dry ingredients, alternating with lowfat buttermilk in two batches. Finally I stirred in a cut up Golden Delicious apple.

Once I used my ice cream scoop to put the batter into the muffin tins, I topped them with a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon. I also sprinkled some chopped pecans on 6 of them (Jim doesn't love pecans) before popping them into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

The muffins definitely tasted healthy, especially compared to Ina's blueberry muffins from the week before. The whole wheat put them on the denser side and they were far from sugary. But the apple pieces were tender and sweet, and the overall flavor was subtle yet tasty. I liked them. And they're pretty healthy, too. If I was to make the recipe again, I think I would add raisins and maybe use a bigger apple. Oh, and with a richer, butter-based streudel topping, they'd be awesome. Of course, then I'd be sacrificing the healthy title.

Jim and I went to Rubio's for the first time in forever. Since it's Thursday, Jim went with a Baja Grill Burrito (chicken) and only one fish taco, plus our usual nachos order. Pretty good stuff.