These days the farmers market is just packed with apples and every time I see them I think that it is past time for me to get down to using them in a recipe rather than just snacking on them. It has been far too long since I last made muffins and I was thinking that some apple muffins would be an excellent way to start the day! When I think about apple muffins I am imagining the harvest and the muffins have large chunks of tender apple and they are nice moist and and light brown in colour from the whole wheat flour and rolled oats along with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. To keep the muffins on the lighter side I use oil rather than butter and I replace a lot of the oil with vanilla yogurt and apple sauce which help keep the muffins moist and tender. It is a good thing that the muffins themselves are fairly healthy because what I do to them next is not at all diet friendly.
I could have just stopped there and these apple muffins would have been great but I was thinking about something a little more decadent and my plan was to stuff the muffins with a cheesecake filling, to top them with a rolled oat streusel and finally to cover them in a caramel sauce! The cheesecake stuffing was pretty simple in that I was going to place half of the batter into the muffin pan, top it with a bit of cheesecake and then top that with the other half of the batter. This way when the muffins baked they would already have their cheesecake stuffing which would cook and set right in the muffin. The rolled oat streusel is just a simple mixture of rolled oats, butter and sugar and it is mixed until it forms crumbs and those crumbs are sprinkled onto the muffin batter before baking them. The final piece of these amazing muffins is a home made caramel sauce that I spiked with a pinch of coarse grained sea salt to give it the hint of the exotic.
Despite the length of the recipe, these cheesecake apple muffins with streusel topping and caramel sauce are actually pretty easy to make and the weekend is a great time to make them. Any holiday weekend would definitely benefit from having these muffins make an appearance for breakfast!
Cheesecake Stuffed Apple Muffins with Streusel Topping and Caramel Sauce
Apple muffins stuffed with cheesecake and topped with a rolled oats streusel and caramel sauce. A perfect holiday breakfast with both a naughty and a nice side.
ingredients
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 egg
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup vanilla yogurt
- 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1 egg
- 1 cup flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup rolled oats
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups apples, peeled, cored and cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
For the cheesecake:
For the streusel topping:
For the muffins:
For the caramel sauce:
directions
- Beat the sugar into the cream cheese until smooth.
- Beat in the egg followed by the vanilla extract.
- Cut the butter into the flour, sugar, cinnamon and rolled oats until combined and crumbly.
- Mix the brown sugar, yogurt, apple sauce, oil and egg in a large bowl.
- Mix the flours, rolled oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in another large bowl.
- Mix the wet and dry ingredients along with the apples.
- Spoon half of the mixture greased muffin pan, add a tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture to each muffin hole, top with the remaining batter and sprinkle the streusel mixture on top.
- Bake in a preheated 375F/190C oven until a toothpick pushed into the center comes out clean, about 15-25 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool.
- Heat the sugar and water in a sauce pan over medium heat and simmer it until it turns a medium amber colour.
- Remove from heat and carefully pour in the heavy cream.
- Return to heat and cook until smooth, stirring with a wooden spoon.
- Stir in the butter.
- Allow the sauce to cool for a few minutes and stir in the vanilla extract and salt.
- Let cool and serve over the apple muffins.
For the cheesecake:
For the streusel topping:
For the muffins:
For the caramel sauce:
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Whoa, these look AMAZING! Yum, what a fantastic treat! 🙂
these look delicious Kevin:)
Awesome job, Kevin! Nothing sounds more wonderful right now 🙂
Streusel and caramel sauce-yum!
Amazing muffins! Really irresistible.
Cheers,
Rosa
What an awesome idea, Kevin… sounds fantastic!
I'm pretty sure I'd have to have these for dessert…and I'm pretty sure they must be amazing!
These sound positively scrumptious!
You tempter, you! I can feel the pounds creeping on already.
What can I say as I drool down my keyboard.
what a wonderful, festive muffin recipe!! anne
Thanks for the recipe! I've never tried this combination.
How much unsweeten apple sauce do you add to the muffin mix? Would you recommend to serve these muffins warm or room temperature?
I am making these tonight to bring to a brunch.
Very Excited to try them out!
Mary Evenson: That should be 1/2 cup of apple sauce. I prefer the muffins warm but they are also good at room temperature. Enjoy!
Hey Kevin,
I gotta say your recipes are very great. This muffin recipe is the second of yours I tried. I know this is not a baking blog, but please provide us with many more baking recipes. Am I right you have not published any cupcake recipe yet?
Best regards to Canada!
Kyoungmi
What kind of oven is best for such kind of results.I am new to cooking expecially want to start baking!
These look awesome. I have printed and will make this weekend. I have been an addicted fan of your website. Really wish I could come visit! Thanks for all your wisdom.