March to the Muffin

By Libbie Summers, Senior Food Editor

Almost two years ago, I was driving to Atlanta on orders from the boss lady. “My cousin Johnnie has written a cookbook and she needs our help to make it pretty…Libbie, pack up a load of props and your food styling kit and drive on over to my cousin’s house for a few days.” Okay, “Drive on over to my cousin’s house,” sounds like it’s on the next block…I can do that. Folks, if you have never made the three and a half hour drive from Atlanta to Savannah or vice versa, I will tell you the road looks like it has barely recovered from Sherman’s “March to the Sea”. But when the boss lady says go west (with a car load full of crap) then you go west.

With a teeny bit of our Paula Deen Enterprises help, Cousin Johnnie released that first cookbook, Cooking in the South, with great success. Next month, she will release her second cookbook, aptly named, Second Helpings. I was lucky enough to work on both books, make a great friend in Johnnie Gabriel and taste the best Apple and Cinnamon Muffins I have EVER eaten. Life is good…but the drive home stinks.

Eat Something Homemade…and don’t worry about the scenery.
Libbie

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins
Makes 48

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups vegetable shortening
4 cups sugar, divided
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
3 cups unpeeled apples, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Coat 48 tin muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray.
In a medium mixing bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the shortening with a hand mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add 3 cups sugar until well combined. Beat 2 more minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour.
Fold in the apples.
Fill the prepared muffin cups two-thirds full with the batter.

In a small mixing bowl, stir together the remaining 1 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Using a teaspoon, lightly sprinkle a small amount of the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the tops of the unbaked muffins.
Set aside the remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Bake muffins for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. (muffins will not rise high in the center as other muffins do). Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the muffins from the cups (they will be tender). While still warm, roll the muffins in the remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Recipe courtesy of Johnnie Gabriel and Thomas Nelson Publishing, from her first cookbook, Cooking In the South.

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