Photo by me, not Ted
From Susan: Here I go, hopping aboard the everything’s-better-with-bacon bus, to come up with these earthy, lightly sweet muffins. Inspired by the classic supper combo of pork chops and apple sauce, bacon with apple seemed to me a natural match. (Unlike, say, bacon-fat-infused bourbon, which we’ve tried, but … no thank you.) I adapted these from a recipe in Ken Haedrich’s excellent book, Country Breakfasts. There’s just enough bacon to add flavor, but the apple comes through too. And I’m proud to say as part of the process I did something I’ve never done before – I ground my own cinnamon. This had nothing to do with wanting “fresh” cinnamon or being “authentic,” it was simple laziness – I was out of ground cinnamon and didn’t want to change out of my pyjamas to drive to the store. So I broke up a couple of cinnamon sticks and put them in the (cleaned out) electric coffee grinder. It took a minute or two to get to fine powder, but it worked! My next cup of coffee may have a vague hint of cinnamon – not a bad thing.
These muffins would also delicious served with a fall soup like butternut squash or pumpkin.
Crumb-Topped Apple-Bacon Muffins
6 strips bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbled, 2 tbsp. bacon fat reserved (If you cook your bacon in the microwave, see note on butter, below.)
2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour (Or use unbleached white flour; regular whole wheat flour is not recommended – the muffins will be heavy.)
1 tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 1/4 cups milk (I used reduced-fat because it’s what I had)
2 tbsp. butter, melted (4 tbsp. if not using bacon fat)
1 large tart apple, peeled, cored and chopped
Oat and Brown Sugar Crumb Topping (recipe follows)
Butter 12-15 muffin cups. Preheat oven to 400.
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Whisk the egg with the sugar and add milk.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in all the wet ingredients, including the butter/bacon fat.
Stir until almost blended, then fold in apple and bacon.
Fill muffin cups to nearly full, then cover each muffin with an equal amount of the crumb topping (use it all). Bake for 22-25 minutes until lightly browned. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes before taking out.
Oat and Brown Sugar Crumb Topping
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (see note on flour in above recipe)
1/3 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) cold butter, cut into small pieces
Mix all ingredients except butter in a small bowl. Add butter pieces and mix with your hands until you have uniform crumbs.
