Whole wheat low-fat apple muffins

I love muffins. However, they can be a total calorie-explosion if you don't watch out. Most muffins sold at places like Starbucks are actually just cake in disguise as they can easily contain up to 500 calories! Also, if they're made with white flour instead of wheat, they won't have much fiber, which means you'll be hungry an hour later. Finally, they are usually loaded with white sugar, which is basically crack (as far as your blood sugar is concerned). 
So I went about trying to make a healthier version of a recipe I found on Smitten Kitchen's blog. 

I replaced the sugar with agave nectar, which though still not okay for Type 1 diabetics (as far as I know), is much kinder on your blood sugar and won't make you wig out. I also lowered the butter content from 1/2 cup to only 2 tablespoons. We'll see how that turns out, but I've generally found that most muffin recipes use waaay too much fat. I also played with the ratio of wheat flour to white; ideally, I would make this completely wheat, but a little white flour tends to make the final product less dense. Who knows, next time I might omit the white flour completely. I also threw in a tablespoon of flaxseed because flaxseed is really good for you. 


Healthy tip: Stay away from anything white. White flour, white sugar, white bread, salt- all that stuff tends to wreak havoc on your body in one way or another. 


Ingredients
Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen


1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon flaxseed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup strained yogurt
3 medium apples, chopped


Directions: Combine the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Mix the two until just combined (over-mixing will make the dough tough). Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. 


Note: strained yogurt is just that, yogurt that has been strained using cheesecloth, to produce a firmer product. If you can't find it, you can use Greek yogurt or regular will do as well. 


Result: They burned a little bit on top because I started them out at 350 before realizing they need to be baked at a lower heat, but otherwise they turned out nice. I think I will reduce the agave to 1/4 cup next time, as I thought they were a bit too sweet. However, they are nice and chewy and fairly healthy. I calculated the nutritional info below!


Nutrition Info
12 servings
Amount per serving:
Calories           153.7
Total fat          3.0 g
Saturated fat   1.4 g
Cholesterol     16.6 mg
Sodium            10.8
Total carbs      28.9 g
Dietary fiber   2.8 g
Sugars             10.6 g
Protein            4.5 g


I'm gonna work on this recipe and hopefully I'll have a better revised version soon.