Apple Nut Muffins

For the filling, melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Stir in the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg until smooth. Add the apples and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until tender, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat, stir in the chopped walnuts and cool completely.

For the muffins, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease 12 jumbo muffin cups. Set pans aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed ingredients alternately with the Greek yogurt (or sour cream), beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing just until combined.

Spoon 1/4 cupfuls of batter into the prepared muffin cups. Spoon some of the apple mixture into the center of each muffin. Just dollop the filling on, do not spread it. Top with the remaining batter, spreading it to cover the filling. Sprinkle the tops with cinnamon-sugar.

Bake at 350ºF for 25–27 minutes, or until muffins test done in the center with a cake tester. Cool for 5 minutes in the pans. Gently run a knife around the edge of each muffin and remove them from the pans to a wire rack. Let cool completely before storing. Makes 1 dozen jumbo muffins.

Note: If you don’t have jumbo muffin pans, you can make these muffins in regular muffin cups. Fill the greased cups half full with batter, add a rounded teaspoonful of filling, then the remaining batter. Sprinkle the tops with cinnamon-sugar and bake at 350ºF for 16–18 minutes or until the muffins test done in the center. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove the muffins to wire racks as stated in the recipe above.

Makes 24 regular size muffins. Slightly adapted from Taste of Home.