Salted Caramel Apple Muffins with Pecan Streusel
September 30, 2014
14 Comments
It’s finally cool enough to turn on the oven. Or at least the oven is no longer directly competing with my air conditioner. The oven usually wins, especially in my little apartment kitchen, but now the open window provides reinforcements! So the a/c and I are celebrating the cooler weather.
These apple muffins are great way of getting into the season. They are chock full of apples and they have just the right amount of spices to make the kitchen smell like autumn. Cinnamon, ginger, apple cider, caramel…they are the perfect complement to the cooling days and rich colors that make fall special.
I snuck in butter-y pecans by topping the muffins with a pecan streusel. It adds a delicious nutty texture and rich taste to the muffins. Mmmmmm!
I then thought to myself, what could I possibly add to these moist cinnamon-y muffins, packed with apples, and topped with buttery pecan streusel? How could I possibly make these have even more fall decadence? By topping them with caramel of course! Or maybe even salted caramel! 🙂
This caramel sauce is quick and easy and comes out super creamy and smooth. I highly recommend adding the extra salt. It makes the caramel taste richer, while cutting the sweetness down a bit, but classic caramel goes great on apple muffins too! Just let your taste buds be your guide!
Just drizzle (or pour 🙂 ) the caramel sauce of your choosing generously over your muffins and enjoy!
Salted Caramel Apple Muffins with Pecan Streusel
Ingredients
Muffins
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2 cups apples peeled, cored and diced (1-2 apples)
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2 ¼ cups flour
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½ cup brown sugar
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2 teaspoons baking powder
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1 teaspoon cinnamon
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1 teaspoon nutmeg
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½ teaspoon salt
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1 cup buttermilk
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6 tablespoon melted butter
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1/3 cup apple sauce
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2 eggs room temperature
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1 teaspoon vanilla
Pecan Streusel
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1/4 cup flour
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¼ cup brown sugar
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¼ cup pecans
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¼ cup cold butter cut into small pieces
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1 teaspoon cinnamon
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½ teaspoon nutmeg
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¼ teaspoon salt
Caramel Sauce
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½ cup brown sugar
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1/3 cup half and half
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¼ cup butter
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1 cup confectioner’s sugar
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pinch of salt
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour muffin tin or line with cupcake liners.
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To make topping, stir together sugar, flour, and spices. Sprinkle cold butter over sugar-flour mixture and combine with fingers until small crumbles form. Add pecans and combine with fingers. Place in frig until ready to top muffins.
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In a large bowl whisk together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and spices). In a medium bowl whisk together wet ingredients (buttermilk, butter, apple sauce, and eggs). Pour wet ingredients over dry and gently stir. Fold apples in and then equally distribute batter between muffin cups.
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Top muffins evenly with crumb top. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
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To make caramel sauce, melt butter on med-low heat. Whisk in brown sugar, half and half, and salt, continuing to whisk until sugar fully dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. When both muffins and caramel are done cooling, whisk powdered sugar into caramel sauce, salt to taste, and drizzle over muffins. Enjoy!
Beth
I just made these and while they have great flavor, they’re very heavy and dense. It doesn’t look like there is any leavening in the muffin batter. Is this an error with the recipe, or are they supposed to be like this?
Karen
Hi Beth! Thank you for reaching out. You’re absolutely correct, there should be 2 teaspoons of baking powder added with the dry ingredients. I’ve updated the recipe – Thanks! 🙂
Terri
2 ingredients that you mentioned that were part of the ingredients, were actually NOT part of the ingredients….., apple cider and ginger…..?????? Please clarify.
Karen
Hi Terri! Thanks for catching that — you’re correct that ginger and apple cider aren’t in the muffins. I’ve changed the paragraph in the post to say nutmeg and apples. I guess I got a little to over-eager about the flavors of fall 🙂 Happy Baking 🙂
Andrea
Hey there, I made these muffins a couple of days ago and they were delicious!
One thing I had noticed was that you mentioned in the instructions for the streusel that the flour should be added to the brown sugar and other ingredients, but there is no amount of flour listed in the ingredients for that streusel. We had to kind of guess how much we would need (unfortunately I don’t think it was quite enough).
Even so, this recipe was wonderful. Thank you for sharing!
Karen
Hi Andrea! Thank you for pointing out the missing flour in the streusel ingredients. I used 1/4 cup flour and have just added it to the recipe. I’m happy to hear you still enjoyed the muffins 🙂
Michelle { A Latte Food }
Oh my goodness, these look deee-licious! I just stumbled across these and I cannot wait to try them! Pinned! 🙂
Karen
Thanks Michelle! You should totally give these muffins a try! I was practically drinking the caramel sauce it was so delicious 🙂
Jessica | A Happy Food Dance
Karen! These look to die for! PINNED!
Karen
Thanks Jessica! 🙂
Sarah@WholeandHeavenlyOven
I can practically smell these gorgeous muffins baking! Totally drooling over how awesome that salted caramel sauce looks on top—I could eat the entire batch. 😀 Pinned!
Karen
Thanks Sarah! The salted caramel sauce really brought these muffins over the top! I was practically drinking the stuff under the guise of tasting to make sure it had enough salt 🙂
Judy @ImBored-LetsGo
What’s not to love about these? All my favorite flavors in one decadent looking muffin. YUMMMM
Karen
Thanks Judy! They definitely were full of fall flavors! It was a great recipe to start the season with 🙂