Grandma’s Recipe of the Month: Apple-Almond Spice Muffins

Nothing says fall or autumn to me like a crisp apple. Food magazines are filled with recipes calling for apples, and I’m a happy reader, cutting out those recipes and planning my own kitchen adventures with apples.

When I found a recipe card for an apple bread, written in my grandmother’s writing, I thought it would make a perfect post as we begin the first full week of fall. Grandma didn’t leave me too many recipes because she rarely wrote them down. Her Hungarian mother passed on her recipes to Grandma and her eight (!) younger sisters by teaching them  to cook and bake “hands-on” in her Brooklyn kitchen. Unfortunately, I never got Grandma to write down more of her recipes. She was one of those terrific cooks who didn’t really need a recipe, unlike her granddaughter.

I decided to make her recipe into muffins and added more spice to my version. I wanted to bite into a spicy muffins that had good-sized pieces of almond and enough grated apple so I could really enjoy the textures and flavors.  My favorite apple to use here is Granny Smith, but any tart, crisp apple will work just fine.

In the interest of making a healthier muffin,  I substituted honey for white sugar, white wholewheat flour for white flour and yogurt instead of sour cream, that classic Hungarian favorite. Happy Fall and I’m remembering that I began this blog in the fall of 2010, just two years ago. I’m enjoying writing to my readers more than ever, and so appreciate your presence in my life – and, especially, in my kitchen.