Yogurt Muffins

I absolutely LOVE to bake! Not saying I'm talented or anything, just love it! Muffins, cookies, cakes.. love it! I really do enjoy throwing together super yummy muffins. They don't always turn out super yummy but these always seem to turn out great!

When you bake low fat things you try to stay away from butter and certain oils (depending) Two of the best substitutes for oil/butter in baked goods are mashed bananas and applesauce. I notice that mashed bananas sometimes don't keep the item as moist as I'd like it. I normally always use applesauce- I sometimes split the oil called for in half and then add half applesauce half oil.. I was out of applesauce last night so this batch of muffins were made with the Smart Balance canola oil. I made blueberry muffins last night. You can choose any flavor combo you wish. I've done fresh strawberries with banana yogurt! I think a cranberry orange would be really good! (orange yogurt with added dried cranberries!)

Yogurt Muffins

2cups flour

1/2cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar (love adding both white and brown sugar in baked goods!)
1t baking soda

1t baking powder

8oz yogurt (I only had 6oz yogurt so I added 2 oz of milk to make it moist enough to mix)

1 egg

1t vanilla
4tb oil or applesauce

2tb lowfat milk (add more if needed to mix dry ingredients)

2cups fresh fruit -chopped if needed

Topping

1/3 cup brown sugar

2tb flour

1/8t cinnamon (or a few shakes)

1tb soft butter (it is needed sometimes!)

Preheat to 350

Mix together flour, sugars, baking soda, baking powder. In separate bowl mix together yogurt, egg, vanilla, oil, milk. Then add dry ingredients to wet ingredients- Mix then add fruit at the end.

Mix topping ingredients into separate bowl. Use a knife to cut the butter so it blends with the dry ingredients.

Pour into cupcake liners 3/4 way full. Top with a little of the topping. Check after 20mins. Insert toothpick, when it comes out clean they are done!

Mine made a little over 12 muffins last night. I went ahead and baked 12 muffins then instead of baking a few extra, maybe 2-3, I lined a mini cupcake pan and added two drops of orange extract to the leftover mix and baked the little ones with orange flavoring! SO yummy!! I cooked the mini's for about 10mins. Think 12 would probably be perfect. Next time I will make the whole batch with the orange extract. Probably still keep it at a few drops of the extract for a whole batch.

Try them out and let me know what combos your family loves. We've already eaten way too many of them this morning!!

Enjoy!