Apple Cinnamon Muffins with Honey-Oat-Streusel Topping + Vanilla Cream Cheese Surprise hidden inside!

It starts with a perfectly fine and crumbly Streusel Topping - combining the natural sweet flavour of Honey with the hearty texture of Oats. Next comes a perfectly moist and fluffy muffin base: apple, whole wheat, cinnamon and spices charm your tongue before in a little surprising moment there's the Vanilla Cream Cheese! Coming in subtle but wowing at the second bite as your teeth already meet some real Apple pieces at the bottom and all together it leaves you coming back for more!
What I'm talking about?

About these little bakery style high domed muffins who bring you all the best of autumns warm, comforting flavours!

A week full of exams lies behind me and it was so refreshing to whip up some easy muffins with a healthy touch, to come home to after my mandatory morning run this saturday. Running and Baking always calm down my nerves - no exceptions! The current weather here in Germany encouraged an easy day hanging around the couch, reading a good book and improving this blog (I've got a facebook page now - you might want to check it out here) And of course stealing myself into the kitchen from time to time to steal another one of these goodies!

Do you have favourite books that just didn't appeared that interesting in the first place?
You know, the ones with that uninteresting title(page) boring blurb, which you just read because they were a gift from a family member or such?
I think you could easily compare those to this muffins - of course in a positive way!
When you first see them you just think "Okay, some more typical streusel muffins, something approved but nothing fancy or over the top gorgeous..." - maybe you will try them, but chances are you forget about them and just live on.

STOP!- I recommend say you need to try them, give it a chance, they deserve it and you won't be disappointed (especially since they are a lot healthier than those store bought ones and a lot smaller than the ones from the bakery, where you end up eating only half of it and then regretting, that you've bought them in the first place because of the hiiiigh sugar amount... We've all been there, haven't we?) They might appear boring in the first place, but just like the book they get better with every bite! - First you might just catch the streusel, then there's the fluffy muffin base, the Cream Cheese is like the book's highlight but you still have the apple pieces and the overall spiced flavour with cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg! After the last crumb you end up sad because the story (muffin) is over but you're too happy that you gave it a shot!

So go ahead get your apples ready and turn the oven on and accompany your next book reading time with these goodies.
What's your favourite book? A good thriller, a heartwarming love story or something with Science Fiction?

Spiced Apple Cinnamon Muffns with Honey-Oat Streusel Topping and a Vanilla Cream Cheese Surprise (makes 6 regular sized muffins)
- Inspired by Sally's Baking Addiction

Honey-Oat-Streusel
- 4 Tbsp Whole Wheat Flour
- 2 Tbsp Oats
- 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
- 2 Tbsp Butter
- 1 heaping tsp Honey

1. Combine the flour, oats and cinnamon. Then work in the butter and honey with a fork until you've got a well combined crumbly mixture (You might want to help a little with your hands)

Spiced Apple Cinnamon Muffins
- 1 small Apple
- 1 and 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
-1/4 tsp Nutmeg
- 1 generous pinch of Ginger
- 1/2 cup Milk
- 1/4 cup Brown sugar
- 2 tsp Honey
- 1/4 cup Yogurt (preferably greek style but plain works well too)
- 3 Tbsp Apple sauce
- 1 large Egg
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Baking soda
-1/2 tsp Vinegar
- 1/2 cup Cream Cheese
- 1 packet (~10g) Vanilla sugar

1. Heat the oven to 220 °C. Prepare a muffin pan with 6 liners greasing around them (prevents the muffin domes from sticking to the pan later on)
2. Wash and Core the Apple - cut in small pieces (about 0.5 cm) and set aside.
3. Mix the flour and Spices. Then mix all other ingredients, minus the Cream Cheese and Vanilla sugar in a medium sized bowl with a fork until well combined and slightly bubbly.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and combine quickly, until just combined (be carefully not to overmix it as you might end up with more tender muffins!). This should resemble in a thick, spoonable batter.
5. Beat the Cream Cheese until fluffy and slowly add in the Vanilla sugar.
6. Now assemble the muffins by dividing your apple pieces equally into the prepared liners and fill each half with dough, then a heaping teaspoon of the of the cream cheese mixture in the middle and then more dough until all liners are filled to the top (that's really important to achieve high domes!)
7. Garnish all muffins with the Honey-Oat-Streusel and put them in the oven.
8. After 5 minutes lower the temperature to 175 °C and leave them to bake a further 15 mins until a tester comes out without any crumbs attached (even though there might be some of the cream cheese on it, but that's not important).
9. Put them out of the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes until you can remove them to cool further or enjoy these slightly warm. - Enjoy!