Secret Recipe Club: Maple Apple Walnut Muffins

It's time once again for the Secret Recipe Club!  After taking the month of July off, I'm so happy to be back.  I missed having the chance to go through another blogger's recipes, select something yummy, and recreate it in my own kitchen.  Want more details?  Check out the site here.

This month, I was assigned the wonderful blog, Chef in Disguise.  Sawsan is an orthodontist who lives in the United Arab Emirates.  She makes gorgeous looking Middle Eastern food that sounds wonderful!  And yet...well...I stayed pretty close to home for the recipe that I finally made.  More on that later.

Sawsan's recipes looked wonderful.  I considered ma'amoul, a shortbread stuffed with a variety of fillings (but I didn't have the beautiful moulds that Sawsan used).  I also liked the looks of Spinach pastry triangles, but J wasn't convinced.  I also discovered that Sawsan is an avid baker.  I wanted to make her Nutella Twist bread because I have yet to meet a Nutella recipe I don't like.  I finally decided on her One Year Blogiversary recipe, Cinnamon Sweet Bread that looked gorgeous, and I was excited about trying the twisting (go look at the picture...I'll wait for you.  Trust me.  It's worth the click!!)

Then I started thinking about the size of that bread.  And the fact that J would probably help me with just a piece or maybe two.  So I started looking again.

I finally found this recipe, and it sounded delicious...and freezable...and not nearly as exotic as where I started.  But trust me when I tell you that the ingredients are staples in a Canadian gal's kitchen, and you need to make these muffins.  Need I tell you!  I've polished off two while writing the recipe preamble, and am trying to decide if a third would ruin my lunch.  It might, but it would be a great way to go!

I present to you now Chef in Disguise's Maple Apple Walnut Muffins:

Ingredients:
1 c all-purpose flour
1 c quick cooking oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c butter, softened
1/4 c oil
1/2 c brown sugar, packed
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 egg
2 apples, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c walnuts, chopped

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease or line 18 muffin tins.  In a large bowl, stir together flour, oats, soda, salt, and spices.  Set aside.
2.  In a second bowl, cream butter, sugar, oil, and syrup until light.  Beat in egg and vanilla, blending well.  Stir in apple.  Add flour mixture, mixing until moist.  Fold in walnuts.
3.  Divide between prepared muffin tins and bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes, until the tops spring back when touched.

Adapted from Chef in Disguise 

I did things a little differently than Sawsan did:  I didn't shred the apples, I didn't start the muffins at a higher temperature and dial it back.  I bake in a convection oven, and it takes some playing to get right.  My muffins ended up studded with big pieces of apples, so the papers looked really full, but these didn't rise too much.  I also used black walnuts, which gave an amazing deep flavour.
Don't these look nice?  They're so yummy.  J gave his approval too.  Thanks Sawsan, for a delicious, fall-like recipe.  These were great!