Apple Cinnamon Muffins
To make Apple Cinnamon Muffins, fold diced apples into a thick cinnamon batter, top each muffin with extra apple pieces and cinnamon sugar, and bake them hot enough to get tall domed tops. They come out soft inside, crackly on top, and actually full of apple.
Muffins are allowed to call themselves breakfast mostly because nobody frosts them, and these apple cinnamon muffins make a strong case for keeping that arrangement. The batter is intentionally thick, built with butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, yogurt or sour cream, vanilla, and milk, then folded together with flour, leavening, cinnamon, and plenty of diced apple. Firm varieties such as Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Fuji, or Granny Smith hold their shape in the oven, which gives you actual pockets of soft apple instead of fruit that quietly dissolves into the crumb.
The muffins start in a 425°F oven for five minutes before the temperature drops to 350°F. That initial blast of heat helps push the batter upward for taller domed tops, while the lower temperature finishes the centers without scorching the edges. Extra apple pieces and coarse cinnamon sugar on top add texture right where the first bite lands. The one thing not to do is overmix once the flour goes in; a thick batter can look like it needs more attention when it actually needs you to stop helping. Bake until golden and a toothpick comes out clean, then wait long enough that the apple pieces no longer qualify as tiny mouth hazards.
