I made these muffins over the weekend to redeem myself from a very disappointing batch of peach muffins I’d made earlier in the week. (My earlier muffins were underbaked, not quite sweet enough and just a bit too moist. Eww.)

These however, were sublime – spicy and fruity with just the right amount of sweetness. The recipe is from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe with a few changes.

I discovered years ago that if you’re baking apples into bread, cake or muffins, you don’t really need to peel them. You can just grate them with a coarse box grater and they blend in beautifully. (Yes, I’m that lazy!)

You can use either a premixed pumpkin spice mix or Mel has kindly provided a blend that I actually like better as all the ingredients are fresher.

INGREDIENTS
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour 
1 cup sugar 
1 tsp baking soda
 1/4 tsp salt 
1/4 tsp baking powder 
1 cup canned pumpkin 
1/2 cup butter, melted 
2 large eggs, lightly beaten 
1 large apple, grated (no need to peel – I had a Gala apple so that’s what I used.)

3 tablespoons sugar
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice, separated OR make your own mix with:
2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cloves, mixed  

INSTRUCTIONS
Combine flour, sugar, soda salt and 1 Tbp spice mix in a large bowl. Combine pumpkin, butter, and eggs in another bowl and add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Fold in grated apple and fill muffin tins two-thirds full.

Blend the 3 Tbsp sugar and the final teaspon of spice mix and sprinkle heavily over muffins.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool and serve. (Or take your chances with hot, yet delicious muffins!)