Baking Review - Fast Apple Muffins

Yes guys and gals, you heard it (well read it) - a baking review! I'm branching out - who knows what could be up for review next!

Anyway this is an old recipe which I "borrowed" from Mel at work and photocopied - it was on a cookery card - very old fashioned yet somehow retro cool. Mel had made these and brought them in for our office to try and they were soooo nice so I really wanted to have the recipe which she happened to have on her (convenient wasn't it?). So below is the recipe and preparation followed by my thoughts on how mine turned out, plus other real life people's opinion on it. For the future I will take photographs :) And as you can see I have updated this blog with pictures from my second batch!

For 16 muffins (which for me turned out to be more like 11)

175g (6oz) plain flour
100g (4oz) caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
50g (2oz) butter
1 egg
75ml (3 fl oz) milk
1 cooking apple, peeled, cored and chopped
2 pieces stem ginger, chopped
40g (1 1/2 oz) walnuts, chopped

Variations to the above:
Omit stem ginger and add a few chopped dates or raisins instead. Use soft light brown sugar rather than caster. Add a finely grated orange or lemon peel.

I personally swapped out the stem ginger for raisins and omitted the walnuts altogether, but kept everything else the same.

Preparation:

1. Heat oven to 200C (400F/Gas 6). Grease 15-16 deep bun tins (or just use cake cases). In a bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Rub in butter finely until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2. In another bowl, beat together egg and milk. Add to dry ingredients in bowl and mix together. Stir in apple, ginger (or raisins) and walnuts (or not).

3 Spoon mixture into prepared bun tins. Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden, well risen and cooked through. Remove from the tins and cool on wire racks. Serve warm or cold.

Good served with: These are delicious served on their own (mmm yes they are), but for a special treat, cut in half anf sandwich together with butter or cream cheese.

Calories per muffin: 125
Can be frozen for up to 1 month (not sure if that's the muffins themselves or the mixture - I'm assuming the muffins).

So after making these muffins (and using my new muffin baking tray - yes very exciting I hear you say), 6 were gone within an hour so I think they may well have been a success! Usually I make chocolate cupcakes or vanilla ones, both with lots of yummy frosting on the top. These muffins however didn't need frosting I don't think, they had a more savoury feel to them with the fruit in and I don't think frosting would have complemented it very well. I can understand possibly going with their suggestion of cutting it in half like a scone and putting butter or cream cheese frosting in the middle, that would actually make more sense, but I think I will continue to eat them without anything added.

So based on all that I would definitely recommend anyone to make them :-)