apple cinnamon muffins with crumble - with improvements
These are moist, apple pie-y, and a perfect little breakfast in a muffin cup - however, they will not blow your socks off. To reach socks-blowing-off standard, the recipe requires a few adjustments.
Basic recipe
100g / 4oz unsalted butter
200ml / 7 fl oz milk
zest of 1 lemon
2 organic eggs
150g / 5oz caster sugar
1tsp vanilla sugar
240g / 8.5oz plain flour
2tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
4 large dessert apples [I used Granny Smith]
2tbsp butter
2tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
Crumble
75g / 3oz cold unsalted butter
80g / 3.5oz rolled oats
65g / 2.5oz plain flour
90g / 3.5oz caster sugar
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 175deg C.
2. Prepare the muffin mixture according to the basic muffin recipe.
3. Remove the cores from the apples and cut into slices. Fry the apples with the butter, sugar and cinnamon for a few minutes. Let cool.
4. Put paper cases in a muffin tin. Reserving 6 apple slices for decoration, mix the remainder with the muffin batter and fill the paper cases two-thirds full.
5. Make the crumble. Dice the butter and put it in a bowl with the oats, flour and sugar. Mix it with your fingertips to make breadcrumbs.
6. Sprinkle some crumble on top of each muffin and decorate with a slice of apple.
7. Bake for about 20minutes in the center of the oven.
Muffin triforce! And now for the recommendations for improvement:
- I really didn't care for the crumble topping, and neither did any of my friends who tried the muffins. It didn't have any taste and the texture was jarring. A streusel topping would have been much better, if you really need a topping. If not, the muffin on its own is nice enough.
- Frying the apples with cinnamon is nice, but to truly elevate the filling I'd suggest adding nutmeg as well.
- The basic recipe is very lemony, so if you don't like lemon in baked goods [like me] I'd reduce the amount of zest to half a lemon or none at all, and increase the vanilla.
No crumble topping, less lemon zest, put nutmeg in the filling - plus a little good whipped cream [who cares if this is just a muffin!] on the side? The perfect apple muffin.
Original post here!