When I told the two boys I would be making muffins with apples, they got very excited and wanted to have a hand on it. They are only familiar with the usual bananas, strawberries and orange muffins. Hmmm...wait till I try making those carrots or pumpkins ones...I could already imagine how their expressions and remarks would be like ;)
The recipe is from a cookbook, "The 250 Best Muffin Recipes" by Esther Brody, which I borrowed from a friend, who is also crazy about baking. I didn't follow the recipe exactly, as I used plain flour instead of cake flour which is called for. I have also omitted the cinnamon and nutmeg as I know my boys will not like the taste of the spices. I replaced them with vanilla essence. I think I've also chopped the apples too fine...can't really taste them in the muffins...will get them coarsely chopped next time. Nevertheless, the muffins still turn out very soft and yummy, this recipe is a sure keeper. With the "occasional" help from the 2 boys (they popped in and out of the kitchen in between their "action-hero battles"), we have these delicious muffins sitting on our breakfast table this morning!
The recipe is from a cookbook, "The 250 Best Muffin Recipes" by Esther Brody, which I borrowed from a friend, who is also crazy about baking. I didn't follow the recipe exactly, as I used plain flour instead of cake flour which is called for. I have also omitted the cinnamon and nutmeg as I know my boys will not like the taste of the spices. I replaced them with vanilla essence. I think I've also chopped the apples too fine...can't really taste them in the muffins...will get them coarsely chopped next time. Nevertheless, the muffins still turn out very soft and yummy, this recipe is a sure keeper. With the "occasional" help from the 2 boys (they popped in and out of the kitchen in between their "action-hero battles"), we have these delicious muffins sitting on our breakfast table this morning!
Ingredients:
(makes 12 muffins)
280g plain flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
50g butter, soften at room temperature
100g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup milk
1 cup chopped, peeled apples
Method:
- Preheat oven to 220 deg C. Grease or line muffin pans with paper liners.
- In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt, blend well.
- In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar, still creamy. Add in egg, gradually, mix well after each addition. Stir till mixture is creamy and fluffy. Stir in vanilla essence, mix well.
- Add flour mixture (in 3 additions) alternately with milk (in 2 additions) , starting and ending with flour. Mix only until well combined. Gently fold in the chopped apples.
- Fill muffin cups with batter till 2/3 full. Bake for 20 to 25mins, until muffins turn golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
29 comments:
They are lovely!
Stumbled upon your blog. Beautiful pics--makes me want to go home and bake. I think I've got some apples, even. . . the fruitfemme
I like this recipe, so I add for my blog. thank you so much!
I love to visit your blogs to view your receipe and your lovely pictures.
Last week end, I finally attempted to make the apple muffins with my girl. She was absolutely thrilled and enjoyed herself. She was very serious in sieving the flour etc. It was a great bonding experience.
Although the muffins did not come out as what I thought but they are still edible and she insisted people to try her creations and giving her comments. (she is only 3 years old) I think the reasons for failing are due to i)the milk was not sufficient. (I could have used a smaller cup) ii)the mixture was over folded such that it had became gluten. Will try again next time but only after my girl insisted to make a princess biscuit.
Hi Poem, you are welcome :)
Dear Dexter. I am to hear that you had fun baking with your little girl :D I love to bake with my kids, although they do create more mess than necessary ;)
Oh yes, you need to get a proper measuring cup...for this recipe, it's 250ml for a cup of milk. And always remember not to over beat the batter for muffins...the batter should be very lumpy.
Hi Happyhomebaker,
I tried the apple muffin and it tasted good. Thanks for sharing. :)
Here is my attempt.
http://angelaphua.multiply.com/photos/album/312
I linked up your site in my post, let me know if this is ok.
Btw, the surface of my muffin is unlike yours with very nice golden brown. Can you enlighten me what could be the possible reason? I can only think of the heat of my oven may be uneven. Thanks.
Hi Let's masak, thanks for linking me up, appreciate that :)
As your photos looks kind of small (sorry, ah soh's eyesight NG!) on your blog, I can't really tell what's wrong with your muffins. They look good to me :) Maybe you meant the muffins were not baked evenly? It would likely due to the unevenly oven heat...my oven has hot spots too, as such I always have to turn the pan around to ensure even browning :(
Hi Happyhomebaker,
You can click on the pix to enlarge it. :)
I feel that particularly this batch of muffin top surface one side is dark and one side is still very light in colour. This problem is not so obvious in my other baking session.
HELLO happy home baker,
i'm Siang Ying from Malaysia and I am so interested to your muffin making. I used to have a muffin making attempt before but the result turned to be pretty disappointing.
My muffins were kinda hard and the structure were very concentrated and thick.
I think the problem would be my stirring process. I tried to control the stirring but still it didn't went well. So i wonder what is the appropriate 'stirring time' to mix the dried and wet ingredients?
By the way i am not really familiar with the measurement of 'cup' instead of gram. I heard that each materials have its own 'cup' measurement. For instance 1 cup of flour is different with 1 cup of sugar. Is this really happen? Coz i am so confuse and unsure. For the reason of unable to understand the exact measurement of materials, i have to give up certain great recipe.
Anyway I love your blog so much so I linked your site to my blog, so easier for me to catch up your updates. Thanks for sharing all such great recipes and lovely pictures.
Hi Siang Ying, thanks for linking me up!
Yes, different ingredients have got different weight. Just imagine, 1 cup of 'marbles' will be much heavier than say 1 cup of 'ping pong balls'. I always use a weighting scale to measure the ingredients. As I am not comfortable using cups, I always avoid using recipes where the ingredients that are measured in cups.
For baking muffins, always do not over mix, there is no fixed timing, you just need to make a few quick stir to incorporate the flour into the batter (ie once you dont see any flour, means you should stop). It helps if you use a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula to do the mixing, dont use a ballon whisk. Hope this helps :)
Hi! i tried this recipe and cut the apples into big chunks but still you can't see any as it just dissolved.My kids loves it and recommended it to my sister. Thanks for sharing your recipes and happy to chance upon your blog.Happy baking!
Hi Happy Home Baking,
I tried this recipe last night, it turned out to be soft and fluffy, but there are a lot of holes in there, may be that was from the baking powder.
I find it a bit dry, coul it be due the the temperature? it was done around 15 to 16 minutes, it was already golden brown; could it be that 220c is too high?
Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Regards,
Beatrice
Hi Beatrice, I don't think the holes are due to the baking powder, they are likely air bubbles trapped in the batter. May be it was due to your creaming/folding of the ingredients. Sounds like your oven is on the 'hot' side, mine is always on the 'cool' side, so your muffins took a shorter time to bake. As all ovens are different, you will have to experiement and test it out. Maybe next time you can lower the temperature by to 200degC. I hope I have clarified some of your doubts.
Hi HHB,
Can I like have the original version of this recipe with nutmeg and cinnamon instead of vanilla? I kinda like spices like that and I even love them in my chai teas! Thanks heaps!
Hi Quinn, I am sorry I do not have a copy of the original recipe as I handcopied it from a book borrowed from my friend. I didn't copy down the amount of spices to be used :(
HI Happy Homebaker,
I'm a beginner in baking as I recently just started to bake muffins. I tried to make this apple muffin recipe by just making it for 6 servings, so i made the ingredients all 1/2. However when i was doing the batter, it all became really liquid-y/water-y, even after i had put in the flour and milk. At the end they came out all really moist and soft, that I couldn't even rip them apart from the cupcake papers. Can you tell me what i did wrong?
I just am amazed by the stuff you do. Wee done!
Please help. My muffins somethime dont form a nice dome when I take it out of the oven, once out, the middle will sink in a little?
Should I bake it longer? I bake it at 165C instead of 180C... maybe my muffins burn if i put 180C
Thanks
Jacqui
Hi Jacqui, for a nice dome, you need to bake it at a high temperature during the initial first few minutes. You can also fill the muffin cups almost to the brim. You can visit this site to read the details:
(http://www.preparedpantry.com/DomeSecrets.htm)
Hope this helps :)
Dear Happy Homebaker,
I've just made the muffin but they don't rise at all and neither have a dome. The centre is very wet and condensed. What could be the reason? I substitute the plain flour with the cake flour, does it matter? Or is purely due to overmix of flour mixture? Or maybe the baking powder (which will be expiring next year March) not effective enough?
Hi Stephanie, I don't think it is due to the flour or the baking powder. I suspect it is you oven. It sounds like you have underbaked the muffins. Did you preheat your oven to the right temperature? Do you have a oven thermometer to ensure the temperature is accurate? My oven usually takes about 10mins to get to the right temperature.
Dear Happy Homebaker,
Thanks for your reply. I did preheat my oven 10 mins before baking. But I never test it with an oven thermometer. I also suspect my oven temperature is not right as it always takes longer time to bake and brown the cake. Will test it next time.
BTW, just wish to confirm, is the creaming of butter / sugar and mixing of eggs using electric mixer and the mixing of flour mixture using hand with spatula?
Hi Stephanie, you can use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugar, or you can also use a manual whisk to beat the butter and sugar. and yes, use a spatula to mix in the flour mixture, you do not need to use an electric mixer otherwise you may over mix the batter.
hi,
may i know 1 cup of apple is about how many grams? or rather how many apples should i use? also what kind of milk are you using in this recipe?
Hi, the recipe doesn't state the number of apples to use. So, it really depending on the size of the apples that you are using. 1 cup is about 1 ~ 1.5 medium-sized apple. Cut the apple into small cubes/chumks and place them into a measuring cup to get 1 cup. Hope this helps and happy baking!
hello happy homebaker,
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I followed your recipe to the exact and a nice dome did form but the center looks as if it is undercooked. Before I take it out of the oven, I did test it with the tester and it all come out dry. I wonder what went wrong.
My husband (who does bake) say it could prob be due to the uneven mixing of baking powder and flour. Do you think so?
I preheat my oven to 160C only (checked with a separate oven thermometer) and not the 220C (as some keh poh husband keep on commenting on "so high temp")..... ;} could this be the reason why the center seems to be under-cooked? But why does the tester come out clean?
Can this also contribute to my 'failure' ?? I will try this recipe again til I get it right. LOL maybe next time I will do it when 'he' is not around.
**confused**
hi. I tried baking this with my new convection oven. preheat 220degees.but ny muffins turned out to be very . but inside is v soft.
do you know the reason?
Hi for convection oven you may need to bake at a lower temp...you may try baking at 190degC instead.
oh! thank you for letting me know. :) will try again!
I tried baking banana and choc chip muffin! my friends said very nice.
Am a great fan of Muffins, can't wait to try it. Thanks for Sharing this recipe.
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