Applesauce-Yogurt Oat and more Apple muffins

We have an abundance of apples. Yesterday, I filled the sink with apples from our backyard tree and proceeded to cook my way through as many as possible without descending into apple-scented madness. Yesterday was also the hottest summer day we've had in awhile -- excellent timing on my part -- but the tree waits for no one!

Twenty cups of applesauce later... I still have almost two dozen on my counter, and countless more on the tree. We've given them away -- more than two dozen to my mom -- made pies, crisps, apple pancakes and now muffins that do double duty at whittling away our applesauce stash AND the lingering apples on our counter.

While I'd like to say that the substitutions I made from the Cottage Cookbook original were driven by some healthy-eating ideal, the truth is that I just wanted to find something to put all this applesauce into. After changing around the recipe, I spent some time with google to learn just how virtuous we'd been. I'm sure I'm officially a grown-up now, because I found myself thinking "if we added some bran to these, they'd be down right healthy." Followed up by "maybe some grated carrot, too." I would try reducing the sugar, except our apples are so mouth-puckeringly green that it wouldn't work very well at all. If you use store-bought applesauce or red apples, please think about reducing the sweetener.

Gods help us.

Without further ado, I bring you today's adventure in breakfast (and apples... so very many apples).

Applesauce, Yogurt, Oat and Apple muffins
2 eggs
6 Tbsp softened butter
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1/2 cup applesauce (our homemade stuff is very thick)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup old-fashioned oats
**2 cups cored and chopped apples
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a muffin tin. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, butter, yogurt, applesauce, brown sugar, oats and apples, mixing well. Add cinnamon, clove, baking powder, baking soda, salt, mixing well. Add in flour, stirring until just blended. Fill the muffin cups to the top. Bake for 25 minutes. The muffins will seem fairly moist, but do not overbake or they will get dense and dry. Let stand in tin for 5 min before removing to a cooling rack.

Makes 12-14 muffins (depending on the size of your tin).

---

**The original recipe calls for 3/4 cup raisins and 1 1/2 cups apples. I dislike raisins, so I left them out and upped the apples. Chopped nuts might make a nice inclusion too. I also leave the skins on my apples, but the original recipe says to peel them. I view it as a matter of preference, except in a few critical circumstances.