Apple Muffins – Two Ways

There are times that I think this blog should be called “Sefie Bakes”, as opposed to Sefie Eats.  I did actually intend this blog to mostly be about bento and general cookery, but somehow, I just seem to find it easier to take photos of baked goods.  It’s not that I’m complaining, but… It kind of makes me feel a little… hmm.  Thoughtful.

So, I had one of those nagging ideas that pull you out of bed at 3am because – hey, I have all the ingredients on hand, and wouldn’t it be just so cool to try it out?  Yes, I am that dorky that I could not get back to sleep because I was thinking of variations on apple muffins.  Pity that I don’t have enough apples to try it again this morning.

Masterchef Australia was still going when I was taking the pictures for this entry, so I decided to use the Donna Hay muffin recipe as my base.  I did make some substitution, though – the main one being swapping out half of the sour cream for natural yoghurt.  I was using Royal Gala apples which are naturally very sweet, so I wanted the muffin to be extra zingy.  I suppose it also reduced the overall amount of calories, but not by enough to really mean anything.

Donna Hay’s Muffin Recipe – adapted for apples

2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup sour cream (substitute 1/2 cup each sour cream and natural yoghurt)
2 eggs
1 tsp lemon rind
1/3 cup vegetable oil
4 apples (smallish) – 1 – 1 1/4 cups fruit of almost any fruit can be substituted here, especially berries.  For banana muffins, use 1 cup mashed banana.

More tweaks
1 tsp salt – Baked goods need it.  I’m surprised Donna’s recipe didn’t have any.
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice – My “traditional” spice mix for apples, sometimes I will also grate in a bit of nutmeg, but I wanted the muffins to be relatively plain so you could taste how much apple flavour was infused into the batter.
1 tsp vanilla extract – Because it’s delicious, and because I love the stuff.

Toppings (more on this later)
Maple syrup
2 tbsp sugar – I used vanilla sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp flour

Sift all dry ingredients, and mix all the wet ones in separate bowls.  This is called… the Muffin Method!  Quelle surprise.  I added the vanilla extract to the wet mixture, but you all did remember that sugar is a “wet” ingredient in baking, right?

Right?

Add the dry ingredients on top of the wet ones, and mix gently, just enough to get them incorporated.  You can leave small lumps, since you’re going to set the batter aside while you prep the apples.  This resting time will allow the moisture in the batter to break down those lumps without over-mixing.

Here’s what occurred to me in regards to the “apples two ways” idea.  I usually cut the apples into chunks, so you have a clear separation between muffin and fruit.  It occurred to me that things like zucchini bread or carrot cake have their main ingredient grated into the batter, so the flavour more fully incorporated.  So, I could either have lovely, lovely chunks of apple that I could pick out of the muffin and savour on their own, or I could have the apple flavour infused throughout – hopefully leading to a more apple-y experience.  Which would be better?  I just had to find out.

I got this nifty apple cutter thing in Singapore, but I have seen them in various homewares shops here.  This gadget has doubled my apple intake for the past two years at least. Pity that it’s pretty much only in muffin, pie, or stewed form…

I prefer hard-fleshed apples, like Royal Gala or Red Delicious, so grating them was a breeze.  I probably wouldn’t try this with a mushier apple, like Pink Lady.  A mixture of apple types would be interesting, but I don’t think using only Granny Smiths would go too well in this recipe.  I know they’re the “baking apple” of choice, but I find they don’t taste particularly “apple-y”.   I’d probably just use them for texture – maybe a quarter or third of the total apple mass? And then use another apple for flavour.

Once you’ve grated the apples, press them gently through a sieve to get rid of the excess moisture.  Discard the juice… by pouring it into a glass and drinking it!  Yum.

Two-way apples, both alike in dignity, also deserve two different kinds of topping.  I decided to go with just maple syrup on the grated apples, and a streusel (sugar-cinnamon) topping for the chunks.  Normally I don’t bother topping my muffins, since it’s just extra calories, but just this once… I thought it’d help highlight the difference between the two.

Preheat your oven to 180C, and prepare your muffin trays!  I just sprayed mine with non-stick.

Divide the batter in half, and mix the apples in gently.  Top the muffins however you like, or leave the topping off for a lovely, crunchy muffin top.  That is the best part of the muffin, no doubt.  I’m almost sad looking at this picture because I didn’t get muffin tops for this batch.

Who am I kidding, I’ve got enough muffin top to last me years!

When the oven is ready, bake the muffins for 12-15 minutes until done.  Let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn them out onto a plate or cooling rack upside down so they don’t get soggy bottoms.

I still picture Saint Alton Brown giggling about soggy muffin bottoms.  Wow, this post is full of positive body images!

For some reason, I didn’t take any profile photos of the chunk muffins, or any interior shots.  Oh, wait, I remember why.  Too busy eating.

The verdict on the apples two-ways?  My original hypothesis was right – grating the apples did infuse the muffins with more appley flavour throughout, but it didn’t enhance the flavour, thus overall decreasing the apple experience.  Which supports the theory of working vegetable matter (eg: zucchini) into the batter in order to hide it from your eaters.  So, if you are unfortunate enough to be baking for people who don’t like apple (or other hard fruit or vegetable) muffins or breads, consider grating the ingredient instead of leaving it in chunks.

On toppings?  Well, the streusel was nice, but quite messy as you can see.  The maple syrup added a decadent stickiness to the muffins, but as I suspected, nothing quite beats a nice, crunchy muffin top contrasting with the soft, fluffy interior.

And now I am reading my own blog post in Alton Brown’s voice, so I’ll stop here before I start alliterating.  Allons y!