Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 medium apple

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325° F.
2. Grease a muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray.
3. Cream the sugar, oil and eggs together.
4. Add spices, salt, baking soda and applesauce; blend well.
5. Stir in the flour until it forms a thick batter.
6. Slice or dice the apple into bite-size pieces (peel if desired).
7. If using slices, place a small spoonful of batter in the bottom of each muffin tin, arrange slices and add more batter. If using apple chunks, add them into the batter then fill muffin tin.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes until firm to the touch. Remove from oven and cool.

Helpful hints

• Recipe makes 6 large muffins, 12 medium muffins or 48 mini muffins.
• For lower carbohydrate content replace sugar with a sugar blend that contains half sugar and half sugar substitute, or make mini muffins and portion 2 muffins per serving (19 grams carbohydrate).