Cranberry Apple Pumpkin Muffins

After we went to the apple orchard, we came home with a couple of bags of apples. We'll be heading to another orchard tomorrow, which means that we'll have even more apples. Since I had an opened can of pumpkin from the pumpkin spice syrup, I went in search of a recipe with apples and pumpkins. I didn't find anything that fit what I was looking for. So, I came up with this and loved how they turned out (two batches later).

I love the tart bits of cranberry in there, but if you don't have any, you could always just add more apples or chopped nuts.

Cranberry Apple Pumpkin Muffins
Makes 24 regular muffins

Muffin Ingredients
2 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour (or 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour)
2 tbs white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbs ground flax (optional)

1 1/2 cups pureed pumpkin
1/4 cup Canola oil
1/4 cup coconut oil (or substitute more Canola oil, butter, or applesauce)
2 eggs

2 cups diced tart, peeled and cored apple (about 2 small apples)
1 cup roughly chopped fresh or frozen cranberries (approximately 1 3/4 cups when whole)

Topping Ingredients
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbs white sugar
pinch of salt
5 tbs unsalted cold butter, cut into pieces

Preheat oven to 350 and prepare two muffin tins with either nonstick cooking spray or liners.

Combine all topping ingredients except the butter in a small bowl. Using your fingers, incorporate the butter until large clumps form. Refrigerate while you prepare the rest of the muffin.

Sift first 10 ingredients (whole wheat flour through flax) into a large bowl.

In a small bowl, combine the liquid ingredients (pumpkin, both oils, and eggs). Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until there are flour streaks but no flour pockets remain (see image below). Fold in the chopped apples and cranberries.

Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full, approximately 3 tablespoons of batter per cup. If needed, even out the top of each using the back of a spoon or fingers dipped in water. Sprinkle each with a generous amount of the topping, about 2 tsp each (if I were to guess; I didn't measure). There may be some topping leftover.

Bake the two muffin tins side on the middle rack of the oven for 17-20 minutes, rotating halfway through if you think of it to be sure that they are cooking evenly. Let cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. You can eat them when warm from the oven, but bits of the fruit will probably stick to the liners. Allowing them to cool will leave you with perfectly intact muffins.

And, so you know that you haven't forgotten something or done something wrong, this batter is very thick. This is how it looks with flour streaks before combining the fruit: