A couple weeks ago, my friends made caramel apples (salted caramel apples to be exact). Melty caramels + tart Granny Smiths = me almost losing a bracket but it was worth it! #bracelife
Ever since I’ve been dreaming of them, so these are caramel apples in muffin form. I used the apple muffin recipe for King Arthur Flour with a dollop of dulce de leche in the middle – and another one on top. I put a little sprinkle of sea salt too just for good measure.
Side note, if you are wont to Google things like “dulce de leche vs. caramel,” these is a nice succinct (and yet questionable? Carmel?) answer by “therealchiffonade” on this Serious Eats thread:
Dulce De Leche = milk + sugar cooked till lightly brown.
Caramel = Water + Sugar cooked to a specific stage.
Carmel = Cream + the water and sugar you cooked to reach the caramel stage, above.
So there you go. (Edit: Woah, cajeta is made from goat’s milk!)
Dulce de Leche Apple Muffins
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
For the dulce de leche
- 1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
I used to make this in the oven, but now use the ingenious method of cooking this in your crockpot for 8-10 hours – which doesn’t seem like it should work but it does. (I know this is not news to anyone, but I am still fascinated). I did it on high for an hour, then on low 8 hours or so overnight, then 1 more hour on high in the morning.
For the muffins
- 8 tbsp (1 stick) butter, room temp
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and smallish diced
Heat oven to 375° and prepare a muffin tin. I used liners because I had some cute one but usually would just do this in the pan.
Beat butter, sugar and brown sugar until fluffy. Mix in egg, then gently mix in yogurt.
Whisk together whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, then stir into the wet ingredients until just combined. Fold in apples.
Spoon into the muffin cups until half full, then spoon about a tablespoon of dulce de leche into each one, then spoon more batter until they are full. Bake 25 minutes, then add a spoon of dulce de leche on top of each one then bake two minutes more. Finish with a sprinkle of sea salt. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove to a rack to cool the rest of the way.