A Good-for-You Spiced Applesauce Muffin That’s Actually Tasty!

I’m constantly (happily) creating recipes, pics and stories for Kitchenlane. Not surprising, they often reflect what we’re eating at my house. Like this applesauce muffin recipe, for example–which I’ve been experimenting with (and eating for lunch with a nourishing soup) for the past week. The muffin fits in with our current goal to eat more healthfully.

I recently read in the Harvard Health Letter
that though people tend to think of muffins as much more healthful
than, say, doughnuts, the gigantic, sumptuous-looking ones typically
found in coffee shops and bakeries are often fattier and more
calorie-laden than the average glazed doughnut. Even the low-fat muffins
aimed at health-conscious customers often aren’t really nutritious, the
article points out, because to compensate for the reduced fat they
increase the salt and sugar. The article notes that an even greater
failing of these so-called healthy treats is that they usually don’t
incorporate any whole grains and contain little fiber. Experts now feel
that these issues are much more important than merely avoiding fat,
especially if it’s low-saturated, heart-healthy fat such as olive oil,
corn oil or canola oil.

In
case you’re wondering why I didn’t add more whole grains and reduce the
sugar and fat as drastically as some recipes circulating around, it’s
because I want the results to be tasty, too. I learned while writing a
number of heart-healthy cookbooks that if recipes are stuffed with too
much fiber and stripped of too much of their normal sugar and salt, they
will come out looking and tasting like hockey pucks.  And at my house,
nobody will eat hockey pucks no matter how wholesome they are!

These are good for breakfast, with a bowl of soup for lunch, or as a snack with a glass of milk or a cup of tea.