CARAMEL APPLE PUMPKIN SPICE MUFFINS WITH SALTED CARAMEL GLAZE
Never was a more fall-appropriate muffin baked.
I don’t know about you, but I have a major thing for caramel apple anything.
And Pumpkin.
And Cinnamon.
And more caramel. Specifically Salted Caramel.
If I was going to throw all of those very, VERY compatible flavors together, what better way to do it than in a muffin?
So I am calling these the ULTIMATE FALL MUFFINS.
The Queen of Autumn Muffins.
or Fantastic Fall-erific Fancies.
Too far?
I digress.
No words are too fancy for these Fluffy Puffs of Autumn Awesomeness.
Fine. Sometimes I go too far.
These soft fluffy Pumpkin spiced muffins are studded with pieces of carameled apples and topped with a drizzle of salted caramel.
One of my least favorite things about muffins that contain apple pieces is that they tend to get gooey a little too quickly. All that liquid in the apples soak out into the muffin creating little pockets of apple-y dough. And they go bad so much faster than muffin without because the apples make them go soggy so quickly.
In these muffins the apple pieces are cooked in caramel first, so all the excess liquid that would normally end up in the muffin is cooked out before the apples even touch the batter. These stay good for SO much longer and they are SO, so soft.
Like little pumpkin-spiced pillows.
Use your favorite recipe for salted caramel sauce to top these muffins. They are best if you drizzle the caramel just a little bit before serving. I wouldn’t really recommend glazing all of them at one if you don’t think you’ll be serving them all. It will make them a bit soggy if they sit overnight or longer.
- ½ C. Sugar
- 2 T. Water
- 2 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored, and diced(1/3" cubes)
- 2½ T. Heavy Cream
- ½ C. Vegetable or Coconut Oil
- 1 C Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 t. Vanilla
- 2½ C. Flour
- 1½ t. Baking Powder
- 1½ t. Baking Soda
- 1½ t. Cinnamon
- ¼ t. Cloves
- ¼ t. Nutmeg
- ½ t. Salt
- 1 C. Pumpkin Puree
- 1 C. Coconut Milk
- Salted Caramel for glazing
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line two muffin tins with 24 paper cupcake liners.
- Place the ½ C. sugar and water in a medium sized saute pan and stir together. Bring to a boil over medium/high heat, brushing down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to prevent sugar crystals from forming. When the sugar turns to a golden amber color, add in the diced apples and toss through the caramel with a silicone coated spatula or spoon. This will cause the caramel to harden in a few spots. Just continue cooking and the caramel will melt back down. Let cook for about 3-4 minutes, or until the apples have let off all of their liquid and are starting to caramelize. Add the heavy cream. Mixture will bubble up quite severely. Continue to cook until it settles down and mixture is smooth. Remove apples from heat and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the oil, 1 C. Sugar, eggs and vanilla until well combined.
- In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing ONLY until combined. Add the pumpkin puree and half of the milk to the batter and mix until just combined. Finish by adding the other half of the coconut milk and mixing until the batter is JUST smooth.
- Add the cooled caramel apple cubes to the batter and fold in until evenly distributed.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin tins. You will use about 3-4 T. of batter per tin.
- Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven.
- Cool on a wire rack.
- When cool, drizzle a little salted caramel on top of each muffin.
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