Sunny Orange Yogurt Muffins

This morning was absolutely beautiful! The sun was streaming through the kitchen and showing signs of spring, finally!  This weekend was warm and sunny, a nice contrast to the typical Northwest cloud.  To bring in this wonderful day, I had to bake a treat that reflected this morning.  So this time, I broke out one of my most loved cookbooks, William Sonoma.  I love how moist and subtly sweet these muffins are.  It's like a small sunburst in your mouth, maybe that's the sun-drenched happiness speaking but either way it's intriguing, don't you think? 

You can find the recipe here.  This is for the quick loaf bread, but it's exactly the same for the muffins.  It should make 14-18 regular sized muffins.  I made 12 regular muffins and 12 minis.  I love minis, they bring me back to my childhood.  When Hostess first introduced the mini muffins in a bag, it was all the rage then.  Banana Nut was my favorite at the time.  They are still around, I see them every now and again, but the real joy for me now, is knowing that I can make them ten times better in my own kitchen.  Anyhow, back to my point, these muffins are sure to bring a bit of sunshine to anybody's day.

Spiced Cranberry Muffins - Low-fat

I had an itch to bake this morning.  Why, I'm not really sure but baking some quick muffins at 6 o'clock in the morning sounded like a fantastic idea!  So, I whipped up some spiced cranberry muffins to bring into work because I cannot leave all of these muffins at home. I would eat them, ALL of them in one sitting. This cannot happen.

Anyhow, I had a Costco size applesauce sitting in my fridge for some time that needed to be used (I'm starting to notice a trend here.  Can you see it?).  Why my family chooses to ignore it in the fridge, I'm not sure.  Wait, I know. Because I live with men and boys.  They go for the easiest thing they see, apparently applesauce isn't that easy to prepare (open the bottle, pour into a bowl, add some cinnamon if desired and enjoy!). Sorry, I'm having a couple side thoughts travel through my brain.  Back to my story: I have wanted to try substituting applesauce for oil for some time now to see how different the product would turn out.  Yes, I admit I'm a bit slow to get on the applesauce substitution train.  My reasoning behind it is because a few years ago, my friend was substituting applesauce for oil in a cookie recipe.  Now, what she gave me to try, was absolutely horrible!  I kid you not, love her, not her substituted cookies.  Needless to say, this turned me off to this substitution for quite some time.  As it turns out after my experiment, this can work out pretty good. Now my first attempt was a bit dry, but I've tweaked it (again) and I think these are so much better.  They have a good sweetness and are perfect with a cup of tea or coffee for a quick on the go morning rush. 

Heat the oven to 400 degrees
1/2 Cup Whole wheat flour
1 1/4 Cup All purpose flour (you can omit the whole wheat and use all purpose too if you want, so use 1 3/4 C total flour instead if you do this)
1/3 Cup Zero calorie baking sugar (or you can use regular sugar, or a different sweetner substitute)
2 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Ground ginger
1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
1/4 Cup applesauce
3/4 Cup milk
1/4 Cup Greek yoghurt
1 Egg
1/3 Cup Dried Cranberries

• Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, set aside.
• Mix the wet ingredients together in a smaller bowl and  mix into the dry ingredients.
• Combined until you make a batter and add the cranberries and mix together.
• Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners or lightly grease.
• Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
• Cool on a wire rack.

You can also omit the ginger and cranberries and add 3/4 Cup blueberries to the batter instead.  These turn out really good as well.