This week’s French Fridays with Dorie is Apple Compote Two Ways or as the French would say half of it, Compote de Pommes Two Ways. I made mine the second way — basically I kept cooking it until it was super think. Then added some butter. I was expecting something like dark apple butter, but it was really just more like thick applesauce. And unfortunately, I’m not a huge fan of applesauce. So, I decided to use it to make muffins, which is something I typically do when I have applesauce around.
Notes: I did make a half recipe, so I used three apples. Empire apples to be specific. And, also because I knocked this one and next week’s Chestnut and Pear Soup out at the same time, I had a little extra rosemary and put a small sprig in with the apples for the initial cooking time. The half recipe gave me a bit more than a half cup of apple compote.
Here’s a link to everyone’s apple compote posts and my photos (and the muffin recipe) below.
Apple Compote Buckwheat Muffins with Hazelnuts, Raisins, and Molasses
Adapted quite a bit from a recipe from Williams-Sonoma; makes 6 muffins.
1-2/3 cups AP Flour
1/3 cup Buckwheat Flour
1/2 cup roasted & chopped Hazelnuts*
1/4 cup Golden Raisins
1/3 cup Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (or 1-1/2 tsp ground Cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ground Allspice)
1/2 heaping cup Apple Compote or (lightly sweetened) Applesauce
1/2 cup low-fat Greek Yogurt
2 Tbsp Molasses
1/4 cup Olive Oil
1 Egg
1/4 cup Milk (can be fat-free)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 6 jumbo muffin cups with non-stick spray, set aside. In a bowl, whisk together the flours, hazelnuts, raisins, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
In another bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the applesauce (or compote), yogurt, molasses, olive oil, egg, and milk until smooth. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and stir in the applesauce mixture just until evenly moistened. The batter will be thick, but if it seems too thick, you can add a bit more milk (whether you need to add more milk will mainly depend on how thick your applesauce or apple compote is).
Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups and bake until the muffins are golden, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes.
* If your hazelnuts are un-roasted, and still have the brown papery skin on them, toast in a 350 degree F oven for about 8-10 minutes, let cool briefly, and then put in a kitchen towel and rub together. This should remove a lot of the brown covering the nuts. Then, chop and proceed with the reicpe.
I liked the thick version of the applesauce. I’ve seen lots of delicious baked goods for using more of the applesauce. Your muffins look like something I might try.
Good idea to use them in muffins. They look really good.
Oh wow, those muffins sound really good.
I am very curious to get into the pear soup – I just need to find someplace around here that is stocking chestnuts…
Muffins! What an excellent idea. I think we all were baking fools this week…and your muffins look like winners!
Love your muffins…they sound so healthy and look perfect! A great way to use up the applesauce. Have a lovely weekend, Michelle!
So much fun to see what everyone did with this week’s recipe. I also expected my apples to turn darker (I guess I was expecting apple butter) but at least the longer version was tasty.
And, by the way, I’m pretty sure that your comments page is toying with me because I’m a finance major and it regularly tells me that my math is wrong. Last time I checked, 5 plus 3 equals 8.
Your muffins look delicious. But I have to say, I’m still stuck on the rosemary in the apples. I was at a restaurant this week that had a cheesecake with a rosemary infused caramel sauce… I’m still salivating!
I happen to like this recipe, since I use the apples with my yogurt and granola. I also made a version with pears, cardamom and lemon along with the vanilla.
Great work in making something you really loved!
Interesting that no one who went the second route ended up with the dark caramel coloring- I am wondering why and will play around with this myself, as I loved this recipe. I had thought that in addition to the turnovers this would make a luscious addition to muffins. So glad you took the energy to prove me right :)They look yummy !
Beautiful photos, and those muffins look fantastic. We enjoyed this recipe and I will certainly be making it
again, it is really easy.
Love the colors in your photos and love that you made muffins with the applesauce. I made a spiced applesauce cake with the balance of my apple compote!
It’s interesting that it doesn’t turn to apple butter, but I think you made great use of it. Those muffins look delicious.