By Week 506. Winter 2025. I am 42 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like soup and bread and this is my life. This is the life I built.
The garden is sleeping under mulch, resting for spring, and I stood in it this week and thought about dirt and time and the way both of them turn nothing into something if you're patient enough.
Mason is 14 and navigating middle school with the quiet competence that has always been his way — focused, kind, certain of who he is in a way that took me thirty years to achieve.
Lily is 12 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.
I made cinnamon rolls this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.
I said I made cinnamon rolls this week, and I did — but what I keep coming back to is the smell, that warm cinnamon-apple smell that filled the Bench house kitchen and made it feel like every good year at once. These vegan apple cinnamon muffins are the recipe I reach for when I need that same feeling in a smaller, quieter form: something I can mix with my hands, slide into the oven, and pull out into a kitchen that smells like patience and time. They’re the kind of thing you make when you’re not trying to impress anyone — just trying to keep the thread going.
Vegan Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 22 min | Total Time: 37 min | Servings: 12 muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup non-dairy milk (oat, almond, or soy)
- 1/3 cup neutral oil (such as avocado or melted coconut oil)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 medium apple, peeled and finely diced (about 1 cup)
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tablespoons water (flax egg)
- Cinnamon sugar topping: 2 tablespoons sugar + 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or grease lightly with oil.
- Make the flax egg. Stir together the ground flaxseed and water in a small bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes to thicken.
- Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and sugar until evenly combined.
- Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the applesauce, non-dairy milk, oil, vanilla extract, and the thickened flax egg until smooth.
- Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined — do not overmix. Fold in the diced apple.
- Fill and top. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Mix together the cinnamon sugar topping and sprinkle generously over each muffin.
- Bake. Bake for 20–22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops are golden and set.
- Cool. Let the muffins cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 195 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Carbs: 32g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 145mg