Spiced Yogurt Muffins

This will be the beginning of my muffin mania. I have a love/hate relationship with muffins, as it can take a while to munch through a whole batch of muffins and sometimes I wonder how healthy they really are.  So I went on a search for a healthier muffin. I found these Spiced Yogurt Muffins, which I adapted from the November 2008 issue of Food & Wine (and also posted here, here and here).

These spiced yogurt muffins were incredible straight from the oven.  They were moist, light and fluffy with delicious spices infused into the batter.  I recently won fresh and whole Penzey spices from Aimee at Sugared Ellipses and found it made a real difference, especially when the main star of the muffin are the spices.

The muffins were a bit sticky to the muffin wrapper while they were warm from the oven (nothing a spoon can’t fix), but the next day they fell apart more easily. Muffins are best kept at room temperature for a few days, else frozen after they were made.  Putting them in the refrigerator makes them dry.

With only 140 calories (and 3 g fat) per muffin, I think they also qualify as healthy (unlike Starbuck’s Sunrise muffin that is almost 600 calories each!).

This is my submission to Magazine Mondays hosted by Cream Puffs in Venice.

Spiced Yogurt Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups plain low-fat yogurt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Line 18 muffin cups with paper or foil liners. Lightly spray the liners with vegetable oil spray (this can be omitted if you are ok scraping the muffin from the wrapper).

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, cloves and 1/2 teaspoon of the nutmeg and pulse to blend. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, yogurt, butter, applesauce and vanilla. Fold the yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients until just blended.

3. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle the granulated sugar and remaining 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg over the muffins (I omitted this step). Bake for 18 minutes, until the muffins are springy; let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 12-18 muffins (I like to stick them all in one muffin tin).