Apple Cinnamon Muffins

 

Its apple season here in the beautiful Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia!  Each week brings new and delicious apples to the table as the different varieties ripen.  We grow a lot of apples here in this valley that I live in. It is one of the main farm crops, although they are now growing grapes for wine as well. We also have loads of local pears and peaches.

I am at the farm market every couple of days looking for my favorite applesauce making apples to be ready. Last year my sister and I used a new variety of apple here called Sweet Tart apples and they made the best apple sauce I have ever eaten. I am really keen to get even more of them this year and make twice the amount of applesauce. Yes, it was that good!

 

Today I used some apples to make some delicious muffins. I love muffins, and prefer muffins that are not too cake-like. Homemade are always better. The muffins in the shops are always too sweet and too large, as tasty as they are.

I adapted a recipe that I found on The Kitchen at Hoskins.  It looked like the perfect apple muffin.   The only changes I made was to peel the apples (not a fan of apple peel in my muffins) and leave the cinnamon out of the actual muffin batter, choosing instead to add more to the cinnamon sugar topping.

These are fabulous. Moist, tender and delicious with a lovely apple flavor,

 

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE APPLE CINNAMON MUFFINS

Just a few simple things. Baking cupboard essentials.

• 1 1/2 cups (187g) plain all-purpose flour, unsifted
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup (100g) white granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (50g) soft light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup (115g) butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 apples, peeled and grated

For the cinnamon sugar topping:

• 3 TBS granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

 

This recipe is meant to use all-purpose flour, NOT self-raising flour.  If all you have is self-raising flour my suggestion would be to leave out the baking powder and only add the soda.

There is not meant to be any milk in this recipe, the grated apple adds plenty of moisture. You can leave the skins on the apples if you wish. I am not a huge fan of apple skins in my baked goods, so I peeled my apples.  I used Granny Smith apples as they are lovely and tart.

I used regular salted butter, and free-range eggs. The eggs are a personal preference of mine.

Make sure all of your ingredients are fresh and at room temperature and make sure that the butter cools down a bit before using so that you don't end up with scrambled egg. You could probably use oil instead of butter, but I like butter.

 

HOW TO MAKE APPLE CINNAMON MUFFINS 

Muffins are probably one of the simplest things to make.  See my hints and tips below to help you make the best muffins ever!

Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 5. Butter 8 muffin cups really well, or line with baking paper cups. Set aside,

Whisk the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together in a medium bowl.

Whisk the eggs, both sugars, melted butter, and vanilla together in another bowl.

 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together just to combine. Batter will be thick. Fold in the grated apple. The batter will loosen.

Divide the batter between 8 muffin cups.

Whisk together the sugar and cinnamon for the topping. Sprinkle this evenly over the top of each muffin, using all of it.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes until well risen and golden brown on top. Place on a wire rack to cool and serve warm.

 

HINTS AND TIPS FOR MAKING GREAT MUFFINS

Here are my hints and tips for making sure that your muffins turn out beautifully every time:

1. Mix wet and dry ingredients separately. To prevent the mix from being overworked, first mix the wet ingredients together in one bowl and mix the dry ingredients in another. Make a well in the dry ingredients, carefully pour in the wet ingredients, then stir the mix a couple of times to roughly combine. 

 2. Don't over mix your muffins. The most important rule of muffin making is to not over stir the mix. What you really want is to just moisten the ingredients. Do not stir or beat the batter until it is smooth and lump free. You want the final mix to be lumpy, and thick with a few floury streaks.

 3. Add your flavors last.  While spices should be added with all the other dry ingredients, additions like fruit and nuts should be added last. Give the batter one more light-handed stir once you've added them in just to combine. 

 

4. Line the pans. You can choose to either grease the muffin tin or line it with paper liners. If you choose to forgo the liners, make sure you grease the base and sides of the cups with oil spray or a little melted butter. If you're not going to eat the muffins for a while, do use paper liners as these will keep the muffins fresher for longer. 

 5. Don't overfill your pans. Aim to fill the cups ¾ full to get muffins with nice round tops and to prevent them from spilling out over the top of the cups.  Often if your tins are over filled the muffins will rise to the top and then collapse on themselves.

 6. For extra interest, add a flavorful sprinkle on top.  Once the muffin cups are all filled, you can choose to sprinkle the tops with more fruit, nuts or a crumble topping, even sanding sugar or cinnamon sugar, for even more taste and or crunch. As the muffins rise these toppings will cook into the tops of the muffin.  

7. Protect your baking pan.  If there isn't enough batter to fill all the cups, half fill the empty ones with water. This will help the muffins bake evenly and will help to protect your pan from buckling. 

8. Cooling them down. Once you remove the muffins from the oven, let them sit in their pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack. This is especially important for muffins that aren't in a paper liner, as it will help them from falling apart. However, remove them after five minutes otherwise you risk them going soggy as they cool in the pan. 

9. Freeze extras for later. Muffins freeze beautifully, so if you can't enjoy them all on the day they're baked, wrap them in plastic tightly, and put them in the freezer for later. They will keep for about 3 months and reheat wonderfully in the microwave for about 30 seconds on high from frozen. 

 

These muffins had a beautiful texture.  Grating the apples meant that the flavor and moisture from the apple was spread throughout the muffin and they held together well instead of breaking apart like muffins with large chunks of apple in them would.

I did not add any cinnamon to the batter as the original recipe had, preferring instead to have an extra note of cinnamon in the topping and more sugar on top.

I liked that the recipe only made 8 good sized muffins, not over the top or overly huge.  I also liked that they were more like muffins than cake. All in all, this was one very delicious muffin that I highly recommend!

 

If you like to enjoy a warm muffin now and then either for breakfast or with a hot drink at break time, might I also tempt you with the following?

DATE NUT MUFFINS - These are moist and dense, sturdy and wholesome.  A great muffin and so delicious. In fact they are one of my favorite muffins. If you are a fan of date and nut bread, you will fall in love with these wonderful muffins that are studded generously with chopped dates and toasted walnuts!  Recipe makes 8 muffins.

GINGERBREAD MUFFINS - I am a hug fan of gingerbread anything. I think gingerbread is probably one of my favorite things to bake and eat! They are moist and delicious with a lovely crumb and beautiful ginger/cinnamon flavor. The recipe makes a full batch of 12 fabulous muffins!

Yield: Eight Muffins

Author: Marie Rayner

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 25 MinTotal time: 35 Min

Moist and tender muffins stuffed generously with grated apple and topped with sweet cinnamon sugar.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups (187g) plain all-purpose flour, unsifted
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup (100g) white granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (50g) soft light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup (115g) butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 apples, peeled and grated

For the cinnamon sugar topping:

• 3 TBS granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 5. Butter 8 muffin cups really well, or line with baking paper cups. Set aside,
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together in a medium bowl.
3. Whisk the eggs, both sugars, melted butter, and vanilla together in another bowl.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together just to combine. Batter will be thick. Fold in the grated apple. The batter will loosen.
5. Divide the batter between 8 muffin cups.
6. Whisk together the sugar and cinnamon for the topping. Sprinkle this evenly over the top of each muffin, using all of it.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes until well risen and golden brown on top. Place on a wire rack to cool and serve warm.

Notes

Use a firm apple with a sweet/tart flavor. Gala, Granny Smith, Honey Crisp, all work well.

Don't be tempted to overmix the batter. This will toughen your muffins. Mix only to just combine.

If you wish you can leave the peel on the apples, it will add texture and fiber. I removed it because I am not fond of apple peel in my bakes.

Did you make this recipe?

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