Baking on Friday: Amaretto Apple Streusel Cupcakes

In keeping with my sweet breakfast goodies theme of the past few weeks, I decided to try this recipe for Amaretto Apple Streusel Cupcakes that came to me via email from MyRecipes.com.  The original recipe was created by Lorraine Fina Stevenski of Clearwater, Florida, and first appeared in the October, 2009, issue of Cooking Light magazine.

Start by preheating your oven to 350°F.  Line a muffin tin with baking cups and spray them with no-stick cooking spray.  (I like the kind with flour for baking.)

As I've said before, I like to weigh my flour when baking, and that's what I did this time, but if you don't have a scale, start with about 1 1/2 cups of flour.  To that, add baking powder, salt, and baking soda and mix with a whisk.

Then, give the kitties some kitty treats or resolve to live with them under your feet for the remainder of the project.

When that's accomplished, cream together 2 oz. of cream cheese, 3/4 cup of sugar, and 1/4 cup of butter.

When that's well mixed, add the amaretto, vanilla extract and one egg.  (You can substitute almond extract for the amaretto if you prefer.)

Then, combine the sour cream and milk and mix with a whisk. 

Add that, alternating with the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/cream cheese mixture.  Finally, chop a gala apple finely.

Although the recipe was silent on this part, I peeled and cored mine first.  Then toss 3/4 cup of chopped apple with 1 tablespoon of flour and mix well.  (Presumably, this keeps the apple bits from sinking to the bottom of your batter.)

My apple was about medium-sized, and it took a little more than half an apple.  (The rest went into my mouth.)  Fold the apple mixture into the rest of the mix.

Spoon the batter into prepared muffin cups and then make your streusel topping.  The recipe suggested using a pastry cutter or two knives for this procedure.  I prefer to use my food processor for making streusel toppings.  However, this was such a tiny amount that I was afraid the large food processor would be too big.  I tried it using my mini-food processor, and it worked great.  My only suggestion would be to cut the butter into small pieces.  I tried dropping the whole hunk in at first, and it just spun around in the bowl. 

I used a fork to mash it up a little, and then it mixed up perfectly.

Stir in sliced almonds and then sprinkle it over the batter in the muffin cups.

Now you're ready to bake the muffins.

for 27 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the muffins are nicely browned.

The muffins are glazed with a combination of powdered sugar and milk, which I hadn't yet decided to include as of this writing.  Sometimes the glaze tends to soak in and make baked goods soggy.  Since we aren't going to eat these in one sitting, I may decide not to add it.  In any case, these smell so appley and yummy.  Enjoy them!