Thanks to the Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks, most people think of pumpkin flavored stuff when it comes to fall. I like pumpkin things, but I prefer apple and/or cinnamon sugared baked goods in the fall. When I was younger we would always stop by a local apple orchard each week on our way home from piano lessons. They had these delicious apple cider donuts that melted in your mouth. Just as an FYI, while they aren’t the same as what I had growing up I made these delicious Gluten Free Apple Cider Donuts last year. I digress…

I ran across these Apple Cider Muffins on Instagram and thought they’d be fun to try. It’s a little more time intensive than your run of the mill muffin recipe, but only if you decide to make your own reduced apple cider. Spoiler alert: it’s not that hard and worth the time. Knowing it would take time to reduce the apple cider I went ahead and started it first. I went ahead and set out my butter so it could be softening a bit making the creaming process a little easier.

At the time of writing this, the second paragraph mentions vanilla twice. I checked the recipe to make sure I wasn’t missing anything but I think that’s just a typo so I put my vanilla in with the butter, sugar, and cinnamon. I used buttermilk instead of kefir and let my batter sit on the counter for an hour (rather than in the fridge overnight) as well. I don’t have large muffin cups so I just did regular sized muffins and I used honeycrisp apples for the sliced apples on top.

These tasted really good and had a nice spiced apple flavor thanks to the cinnamon and apple cider. I think they would have been more fun as a jumbo muffin rather than regular sized, but next time!

Recipe Used: Buttermilk By Sam