I look forward to my Muffin Mondays to kick off a chilly winter week. It's a perfect way to take the chill out of the air. It'll inspire you to keep on baking with fresh muffin inspiration. So let's get started—here's my seasonal spin on the average apple muffin - add pumpkin and crumb. My muffins are great to take on the go, too. Enjoy!

Apple Pumpkin Crumb Muffins

recipe by Chef George Hirsch | Makes 18 muffins or one 9 x 13 coffee cake

For the crumb topping:

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup oats, not quick cooking

1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1/2 cup melted butter

Mix all sugars, flour, oats, and nuts. Pour in butter and mix until the topping looks like wet sand. Do not over-mix; the topping should have a lumpy consistency. Reserve crumb topping and prepare the muffin batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Lightly grease 18 muffin cups or use paper liners.

For the muffins:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour; or 50/50 whole wheat flour

2 cups pure cane granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ginger

Pinch allspice & fresh grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup can pumpkin puree

1/2 cup applesauce, or vegetable oil

2 cups Green or baking apples, peeled, core, and chopped into small pieces

In a large bowl, add flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, pumpkin, and oil. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until flour is absorbed. Add chopped apples.

Add batter into prepared muffin cups 3/4 filled. Top each muffin with crumb mixture and bake.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

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Baking Spring and Summer seasonal muffins are ideal this time of year, especially since blueberries are so plentiful right now and muffins bake fairly quickly with not much prep.

Oh, you say that you don’t have fresh blueberries on hand, but your bananas are ripening faster than you can say "Good Night, Mrs. Calabash - wherever you are!"? Well then, here's my banana muffin recipe, blueberries are optional.

Tip:

Did you know? Tossing blueberries with flour before adding them to the batter will keep them from sinking to the bottom of the muffin during baking.

Blueberry Nut Muffins

Makes 10-12 muffins

chefgeorgehirsch.com | George Hirsch Lifestyle

For the topping:

1/3 cup lite brown sugar

2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 Tablespoons nuts, walnuts or pecans, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces

1 Tablespoon sweet butter

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nuts. Blend butter in with a fork until mixture is crumb like.

For the muffin mix:

1/2 cup sweet butter, room temperature

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon flour for coating blueberries, plus greasing muffin cups

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh blueberries

1 cup pure cane granulated sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest

1/2 cup milk

Grease a regular size 12-cup muffin pan with butter and dust with flour, banging out excess flour; or use muffin cups liners.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl use a mixer to cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add vanilla and orange zest to beaten eggs, then add eggs one at a time, mixing until eggs are absorbed.

With the mixer on low speed, add flour mixture and milk in three stages, mixing until all are incorporated. Do not over mix.

Toss blueberries in a fine strainer with about one Tablespoon of flour to lightly coat. Using a rubber spatula, fold in 1 1/2 cups of the blueberries. With an ice cream scoop or large spoon, place batter into muffin cups filling each cup to three quarters full. Add remaining 1/2 cup of blueberries on top of the muffins and divide crumb topping over muffins.

Bake about 25-30 minutes, until muffins are golden brown. Check muffins half way through and rotate if oven temperature is uneven. Test with a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin and it should come out clean; or when touched lightly the muffin should have a slight resistance to finger pressure.

Remove from oven and allow muffins to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove muffins from pan.

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