The recipe looked so promising that I simply could not wait till the holidays started to try it out. Which was how I ended up lugging more than a dozen muffins to share amongst my colleagues in the middle of the week. From the way they rapidly disappeared, I'm confident to pronounce these a success. The sour cream (which the recipe calls for in lieu of milk) and the ample amount of apple chunks in the batter made these muffins extremely moist. The crumble on top was crunchy like a cookie, and deliciously buttery.
There are so many recipes in Margaret Fulton Baking that I want to try over these holidays, including the sour cream chocolate cake, and the Bienenstich (German bee sting) cake. I went on a cookbook shopping binge a few weeks ago, and came home with an impressive array of texts:
Whee, fun times ahead!
The apple crumble muffins are extremely easy to make; no need to get out the electric beaters or mixers. In fact, you don't even need to leave the butter out to soften in advance. The beauty of making muffins is that you can pretty much dump all the ingredients in one bowl (although some texts recommend mixing the dry ones together first, the wet ones in another bowl, and then combining the two). The butter can be melted in the microwave, and then stirred in. The most time-consuming part was chopping the apple into chunks, but even that didn't take very long. The crumble requires that you work fast in order not to melt the butter with your hot little hands while you rub it into the dry ingredients (ala. making a shortcrust pastry dough).
Whee, fun times ahead!
The apple crumble muffins are extremely easy to make; no need to get out the electric beaters or mixers. In fact, you don't even need to leave the butter out to soften in advance. The beauty of making muffins is that you can pretty much dump all the ingredients in one bowl (although some texts recommend mixing the dry ones together first, the wet ones in another bowl, and then combining the two). The butter can be melted in the microwave, and then stirred in. The most time-consuming part was chopping the apple into chunks, but even that didn't take very long. The crumble requires that you work fast in order not to melt the butter with your hot little hands while you rub it into the dry ingredients (ala. making a shortcrust pastry dough).
The muffins before baking, with the crumble mixture sprinkled on top.
The muffins can be eaten hot, straight out of the oven (or with a few minutes to cool out of consideration for your tongue), with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. Unsurprisingly, it tastes like an apple crumble xD However, I would recommend you to allow them to cool, and then store them in an airtight container at room temperature for a day in order to allow the flavours to develop. And then if you want to have it hot, just zap it in the microwave for 20 seconds. Instant pudding!
The muffins, fresh out of the oven.
Apple Crumble Muffins
Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients
For the muffin batter:
1 1/4 cups (185g) plain flour
1/2 cup (110g) white granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
60g butter, melted
2 large Granny Smith apples, roughly chopped to 1cm chunks
For the crumble topping:
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 tablespoons cold butter, diced
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Method
1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius (375 degrees Fahrenheit). Line muffin tin with grease-proof cupcake liners.
2. Into a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, and melted butter until blended. Stir in the apple chunks.
4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and fold until combined, but do not over-mix. Fill the lined muffin tin.
5. To make the topping, put all the ingredients into a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the muffin batter, dividing the crumble mixture evenly between the 12 muffins.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until browned. Cool on wire racks, or eat it warm with ice cream!
Made these with my two little girls today! So yummy!! Although my crumble mixture wasn't really 'crumbley', but I think that was because my butter wasn't chilled enough. But they are still very yummy!
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