Spiced Yogurt Muffins

Spiced Yogurt Muffins

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I love these muffins. I’ve made them before, but I change things up just a little bit each time I make them. An actual, real chef even ate one of them and didn’t pass out or spit it out or yell at me or anything…I think he even said they were good. Score!

Also, they couldn’t be much easier. As always, I started with the dry ingredients. Flour (whole wheat white), brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the spices: cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and freshly grated nutmeg.

dry ingredients, not mixed

The first time I made these I totally screwed up the nutmeg. The recipe has 3/4 teaspoon of nutmeg on the ingredients list, so I just tossed it in, missing the all-important line “…and 1/2 a teaspoon of the nutmeg.” D’oh. Fortunately  what I learned is that more nutmeg is better, and so is more of everything else, too. So this time, I just upped the ante on all the spices, and did not regret it.

In a separate bowl I glopped together the wet ingredients: eggs, yogurt (I used vanilla), melted butter, applesauce, and vanilla. I am usually wary of applesauce in recipes, as it can make the texture unpleasant, but I know this recipe well by now and need not fear the applesauce.

wet ingredients in orange bowl

It looks a lot less disgusting after it’s mixed:

mixed up

Next: combine! I did say it was easy.

adding them together

combined

Like most muffin recipes, you have to be careful not to overmix. I made those lemon poppy seed muffins again a few days ago, and definitely overmixed, and the texture wasn’t as light & fluffy as the first batch I made. (I did, however, double the lemon zest & lemon juice, which was a nice consolation prize.) So I was careful with these, and once everything seemed to have been folded in nicely, out came the muffins trays and in went the big globs of batter.

The recipe is supposed to make 18 muffins, and that’s what I got, but some were very small. I think next time I’ll make 15 or 16, so they can all be the same size.

Once they were in the muffin tins, I mixed some Turbinado sugar with some cinnamon (instead of the granulated sugar with the aforementioned leftover nutmeg in the recipe) and sprinkled it on top.

turbinado sugar & cinnamon

I had preheated the oven to 400 degrees, so I popped the muffins in, reduced the temperature to 375, and let them bake for a little over 15 minutes. I think I ended up at 17. Ish.

yogurt spice muffins

They looked pretty good, they smelled amazing, and they go great with a nice cup of tea, especially when served in a hilarious “Teach” mug.

muffin with tea

(And for those who care, these are only 4 Weight Watchers P+.)

SPICED YOGURT MUFFINS RECIPE (original)

My version of Spiced Yogurt Muffins (adapted from Food & Wine)

makes 16 muffins

ingredients:

1 1/3 cups whole wheat white flour
2/3 cup wheat germ
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cloves
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 cups low fat vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or extract)

for sprinkling on top:
1 tablespoon cane sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

directions:

Heat oven to 400 degrees, you will reduce the temperature later. Grease, line, or spray 16 muffin cups. Melt the butter, so it has time to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, slat, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.  Make a well in the center.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, butter, applesauce, and vanilla until well blended.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and fold just until incorporated.

Scoop batter into muffin tins and sprinkle the sugar & nutmeg mix across the top of each one.

Place in the oven and reduce temperature to 375. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the tops spring back and/or a toothpick comes out clean. Let them sit in the pan for 5 more minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

 

Comments

  1. Okay so I just made these, with some adjustment: I accidentally put 1.5 tsp of allspice instead of 3/4 tsp, so they are quite warm tasting, and I didn’t have applesauce so I just added about 1/8 of a cup of coconut oil instead. I only had plain yogurt, so I used 2 tsp vanilla extract, and made them into mini muffins, baking them for 18ish minutes was perfect! They are so good, thanks for the recipe!

    • That sounds great! Glad you enjoyed them, I might try doing mini muffins too, and varying up the spices. I’ve also been doing a lot with safflower oil lately, which makes everything a lot lighter.

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