Apple Cinnamon Millet Muffins

Ahh...fall!  I love all the seasons.  We have a good balance of them here in the North Georgia Mountains.  Now that we don't have the intense heat of summer and things are all put up from the garden, things change gears here and we have a pleasant shift in work load. There is just not as much demanding my time outside on the farm.

Waking up to a chilly house and going out to milk in the barn on these crisp mornings makes me feel like baking.  I don't do a lot of baking in the summer months because I try not to heat the house up very much.  But in the fall and winter I am ready to warm the house up with the smells of crusty home made breads, yummy sweet treats and stock pots full of warming chilies and stews that simmer on the stove top all day long.

As I do some cooking and baking thru the winter I will try to remember to record what I make and share it here on the blog.   Today, I am going to share with you my families favorite Apple Cinnamon Millet Muffin recipe.  If you wish to see why we grind wheat to bake bread fresh or use certain things in our recipes you can look at this post here.

Muffin recipe: 

2 1/2 cups freshly milled flour (I grind hard white wheat for this recipe but hard red works well too)
3 Tbs hulled millet
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk (I use goats milk because that is what we have)
1 egg
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (or oil you love to bake with)
1/2 cup real maple syrup (honey works well in this or sucanat)
1 apple - pealed cored and chopped pretty well

Topping recipe:

1/8 cup sucanat blended with 3/4 tsp of cinnamon. This is basically cinnamon and sugar.   (if you don't use it all on the tops of your muffins use it up on some butter toast for a few days.  :)

2 table spoons hulled millet



Put all your dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix or Kitchen Aide with the whisk attachment and mix on low.

Then add all wet ingredients and mix.

Once mixed, mix in the chopped apples.

Place by spoonfuls into oiled muffin tins.

Take the topping portion of hulled millet and use a spoon or fingers and sprinkle the millet generously over the tops of your muffin batter.

Then sprinkle on the cinnamon and sucanat. (If you don't put the hulled millet on before the cinnamon and sucanat the millet does not stick very well.)

Bake in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  

Pop them out to cool.

Then enjoy them!

This is one of my families favorite muffin recipes.  The millet really makes it taste nutty and special.  Sometimes I take out the cinnamon and apple and replace with with banana and use just sucanut and hulled millet as the topper and it is really good as well.  I get kind of creative with it.  I have also used blue berries, cranberries or carrot with great success. 

Blessings and Happy Farming!
susan