Apple Cinnamon Muffins

This recipe is from some long-forgotten cookbook from when I was a girl. It's the first recipe I ever baked in my whole life which deserves some sort of a prize I'd say.

They're good for breakfast or a snack, dinner or dessert. And with apples in there you get lulled into a feeling of healthiness that makes it all worthwhile.

1 ¾ cup flour
¼ cup sugar
2 ½ tablespoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
¾ cup milk
1/3 cup oil
1 cup apple
2 tablespoons sugar+1/2 teaspoons cinnamon for topping

Mix the dry ingredients (flour through cinnamon) in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. Mix the wet ingredients separately in a medium sized bowl (egg through apple) before adding them to the center of the dry ingredients in the large bowl. Mix all the ingredients together until just combined.

Fill greased muffin cups three-quarters full with the batter. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon together and sprinkle on top of the muffins.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden.

***

And here's yet another cookbook I was given to review--The Stocked Kitchen is a great beginner's cookbook. The premise is that all the recipes in the book are taken from a rather limited list of ingredients.

If you hate recipes that have all sorts of strange, unusual or exotic additives or if, when dinnertime comes around, you tend to open up the refrigerator and say, "Now what in the world can I make for dinner?" then this just might be the book for you.

In the back flap of the book is a tablet of paper that has a pre-printed shopping list with all the ingredients needed to to make any of the recipes. If you follow the book's philosophy you should have most of the non-perishable things on hand already so that you can check off the fresh ingredients you'd need and head to the store right then and there.

The recipes aren't terribly trendy or unusual, most of them are staples of any basic cooking repertoire, but as I said it's a good cookbook for a beginning cook or someone who doesn't have a lot of time in the kitchen. It's good for someone on a budget who doesn't want to invest in 30 or 40 spices and a cabinet full of condiments but wants to be able to whip together a tasty and nutritious meal in 30 minutes.

Not a bad gift for a new graduate or bride.

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