Post-Halloween Muffins Post

It's been awhile. I guess there really is more to life than just your daily bread. Or blogging about your daily bread. Alas! Alack!

Anyway, here we are again.

My elder brother checked into the blogosphere recently and then emailed to ask if a rant against donuts 30 years ago would have saved me from my Dunkin Donut vice. A good question. His influence was definitely broader than WonderBread, but I'm not sure he would have had a chance against donuts. Let me ponder that...

The competition would have been tough, that's for sure. From as long ago as I can remember, my mom and I had a ritual, see? Every Sunday morning after church we'd stop at the local donut shop - Montgomery Donuts - for a yummy treat. I'm fairly certain this is the reason I'm a minister now. Early childhood associations live long.

My favorite donut, then as now, was the chocolate frosted. Ymmmmm. I've never had a better donut than those at MD's! Even Dunkin Donuts pales in comparison. The MDCF (Montgomery Donuts' Chocolate Frosted) is the Great Archetypal Donut after which I am always seeking. A deep donut yen that can never be truly fulfilled. Krispy Kreme's got nothin' on 'em.

A couple of years ago, living as we did then next to a bakerwoman, I contemplated creating my own line of healthy, whole-wheat baked donuts. I'm just not convinced that there would have been a market for my product. After tasting a prototype, I'm not sure it would have worked even for me.

So, I've moved on to muffins.

On Halloween night, while my wife was dutifully doling out treats to the costumed kiddies, I mostly stayed in the kitchen making muffins. She'd requested another batch of Sweet Potato Maple muffins, one of her new favorite breakfast-on-the-go treats. And, I had a big bowl of homemade applesauce that needed using up. Hence, apple bran muffins and oatmeal apple muffins were added to the evening's baking repertoire.

Now, I love the sweet potato maple muffins as much as the next person, but my favorite this week has proven to be the oatmeal apple. They're moist and delicious, very apple-y, and moderately healthy, as muffins go. I even tampered a bit with the recipe to make them slightly healthier. Shhhhh. Don't tell my wife!

Next time you find yourself in a muffin-baking mood, try these:

Oatmeal Apple Muffins

1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1 cup apple sauce
1 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. allspice
1 cup rolled oats

Preheat oven to 375. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in honey, eggs, and apple sauce. In a separate bowl, mix flours, baking powder, baking soda, allspice and oats. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Fill muffin cups 1/2 full. Bake 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Makes about 24 muffins.

As I mentioned, I used homemade applesauce, but any sauce would do - just apples and water - no need for sugar. There's enough sweetener in the rest of the recipe. Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure that I ran out of honey after about 1/4 cup and made up the rest using maple syrup, which is what I prefer anyway. I also added more whole-wheat flour, and less white, probably about 3/4 cup of each. I added about 1/4 cup of wheat germ, too. And then a little more apple sauce than called for to keep it all moist.

I've been eating these instead of donuts and that's been working for me this week. So, bro, I guess the real answer to your question is that yes, perhaps an anti-donut rant would have worked thirty years ago in conjunction with a post-church muffin-baking ritual. But probably not alone. I think the ritual part was almost as compelling as the MDCF itself!

Monday night after all the trickertreaters had come and gone, three of our neighbors dropped in for a muffin. And the five of us and the dogs stood around the kitchen island tasting muffins and talking, mostly about what we each like and don't like about Halloween. And everyone admired the Halloween muffin cups that I'd been using. And the smell of muffins wafted through the house. And it was cheery and warm and, well, neighborly.

I'm thinking that gathering around the hearth and sharing - both food and ourselves - might have helped to make the muffins even more delicious. And I think maybe we'll do it again next year. Make it a ritual.