Apple Cheese Muffins (or Loaf)

Recipe by Braxton Allred

Apple Cheese Muffins (or Loaf), preserved in the Brown Family Cookbook 2020.

Ingredients

One of our good family friends introduced us to the recipe, and in instant hit for a semi-fancy breakfast bread
2 cups flour
½ cup sugar
1 T. baking powder
1 tsp. Salt
1 cup cold butter, cut in 1⁄2” pieces
8 oz cheddar cheese, cut in 1⁄2” pieces (a sharp cheese is nice)
1 large egg
1 lb apples (2 medium, or maybe 1.5 large)
¾ cup milk Glaze (optional, I don’t usually need it but you can decide)

01
Peel and halve apples, then slice then into thin half moons. Set aside. Pulse flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and cheese in food processor until mixture resembles coarse meal; transfer to a large bowl. (You can also grate the cheese and cold butter instead, and mix it up yourself in a large bowl with a fork until it resembles coarse meal).
02
Whisk egg and milk in a measuring cup; slowly stir into flour mixture until combined.
03
Spoon batter into greased, floured muffin tins (don’t use papers) or make loaf (see below). Arrange apple “moons” in a pretty fan shape on top of each muffin, pressing gently to adhere to batter. Use more apples than you think you might…
04
Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, until edges of muffins are just golden. Once edges are golden, remove tray and brush quickly with glaze. Return to oven and continue baking approximately 10 more minutes, until they pass the toothpick test. Cool in tin 5 minutes, then carefully transfer to rack and cool 10 more minutes (if you can wait).
05
Note: You can also make this in a loaf pan to avoid washing sticky muffin tins. If you want to do that then just put half the batter in a loaf pan, do one layer of apples then repeat layers. Baking time is 30 minutes at 350, then add glaze and 10-15 more minutes.
06
Glaze: 1⁄2 cup sugar, 2 T. water, 2 T. butter, 1 T. lemon juice, 1⁄2 ts. Cinnamon- Heat all glaze ingredients in small pan for about 3 minutes, till sugar is dissolved.