A couple weeks ago Jeff and I went to Valley Orchard in Cherry Valley with our friends Bob & Michelle.
Michelle had never been apple picking before so we were excited to go with her for her first time. I came home with quite a few apples and these muffins were the first thing I made.
The thing about picking apples straight off the tree this year is that there wasn’t much rain so almost any orchard I called wasn’t offering the u-pick option, that is, all but Valley Orchard.
We totally lucked out with the location and actually almost didn’t get to go into the orchard. Right after we arrived the rain started and we hung out in the gift shop for a while, reading all the different art work, jars of jam and jellies they had.
Then the rain let up, the owners let me borrow one of their rain coats (since I was clearly not dressed for the cold wind that the rain brought in) and we got to pickin! Jeff caught a photo of Bob, Michelle and I after the rain had settled and he of course played around editing it on his iPhone on the drive back home. :)
There was only one type of apple I tasted that didn’t match the flavor. I told Jeff after biting into it that it made me think of Snow White, looked all innocent but did not have that appley-deliciousness I was expecting.
We came home with a large quantity of apples so I’ve been making all sorts of recipes in the last couple weeks with our supply. Currently there are apples in the freezer waiting to be turned into raw applesauce, we’ve had my favorite recipe from Pigskin Paleo –Apple Pie in a Bowl (and a couple variations of it), I made a Paleo version of Michelle’s Simple Apple Pie Smoothie, a raw apple pie and of course these Paleo Zucchini Apple Muffins.
Adjustments To This Recipe
I recently re-made these Paleo muffins to make them nut-free. I updated the recipe listed below but recorded the changes here so if you have made these in the past, you can remake them as they were. FYI this recipe used to make more than a dozen muffins.
- I reduced the amount of zucchini by a 1/2 cup.
- I removed the 3/4 cup of almond flour to make it nut-free
- I removed 1 teaspoon baking powder.
- I reduced the baking soda to 1/2 from 1 teaspoon.
- A laundry list of ingredients will sometimes turn people away from a recipe and when I went to remake these muffins I was caught off guard by how many ingredients I had used so I removed all these individual spices: 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice.
- I had used two small apples straight from the farm when I first made these muffins and this time I got a little more exact and measured this time. :)
- To make these nut-free I removed 1/2 cup of raw pecans and raw walnuts which were previously mixed into the batter and added a few raw pecans to a few muffins before baking. For a complete nut-free muffin simply don’t add the nuts.
