Margaret Fulton's Apple Crumble Muffins

Guess who is now officially on holidays! That's right, yesterday was the last day of uni for this semester. You'd think I'd be out there partying like an animal and getting inebriated, but the embarrassing truth is that my idea of the perfect end-of-semester celebration is watching random Youtube videos in my "slob" clothes while mindlessly chowing down on Lindt Excellence 85% dark chocolate. And reading cookbooks! I am currently making my way through one of Margaret Fulton's, and indeed, this was where I got the recipe for these awesome Apple Crumble Muffins from.

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).

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!

Coconut Nutella Crunchies

I tested out a second recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly 'The Afternoon Tea Collection' yesterday. While my dough for the Melting Moments was chilling in the freezer, I got to work on these Coconut Nutella Crunchies:

These are essentially cookie sandwiches made from coconut honey oatmeal cookies, with a layer of Nutella in between. I substituted some ingredients in the original AWW recipe with what I had lying around. I used honey where the recipe called for treacle or golden syrup (although, I did find a jar of golden syrup in the cupboard right after I added the honey. darn it! :D), and used Nutella in the place of chocolate ganache, because I couldn't be bothered to make the latter.

The cookies were made with self-raising flour. This, combined with the eggs in the dough, makes for a crumbly, pillowy cookie. I'm quite happy with my substituting Nutella for chocolate ganache, since Nutella makes everything taste good and the hazelnut flavour adds yet another dimension to the cookie. However, I do believe that chocolate ganache will set harder, and maintain the structural integrity of the cookie, whereas the Nutella sorta just melted and smeared everywhere. A few hours in the fridge did help to rectify the situation.

As with the Melting Moments, I recommend chilling the dough in the freezer before shaping it. I made pretty criss-crossed indentations on each cookie with a fork before putting them in the oven, and I was saddened to see that the pattern was lost after baking. Oh well. When baking for family (and oneself), it's the taste that counts more than anything else. And these taste good, believe you me :D *wanders off to eat another Coconut Nutella Crunchy*.



Recipe for Coconut Nutella Crunchies

Adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly 'The Afternoon Tea Collection'


Makes 30-40 Crunchies, depending on how big you make them

Ingredients

For the cookies:
125g (4 ounces) butter, softened
3/4 cup (165g) firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 eggs
2 cups (300g) self-raising flour
1 cup (80g) desiccated coconut
1/2 cup (45g) raw rolled oats

For the filling:
Large jar of Nutella or other hazelnut spread (no, you won't need the whole jar. I simply didn't take note of how much I used, sorry xD)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). Place baking rack towards the centre of the oven, closer to the bottom. Line baking tray with baking paper.

2. Beat butter, sugar and honey in a bowl with electric mixer or beater until smooth, light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs. Stir in the flour, coconut and oats until fully incorporated.

3. Place dough in fridge or freezer and chill until hard enough to roll with hands. Dust your hands with flour, then roll rounded teaspoons of mixture into balls. Placed on lined baking tray, with about 5cm between each cookie. Dust fork with flour, and use it to flatten the dough balls.

4. Bake cookies for about 12 minutes. Cool on trays, then transfer to cooling racks.

5. Once cookies are completely cool, sandwich two cookies with about a rounded teaspoon of Nutella.

Melting Moments with lime buttercream filling

I think the name of the cookies is particularly apt for this time of year in Australia, wouldn't you agree? It felt like it was 45 degrees Celsius outside today! I felt like someone had converted my backyard into an open-air sauna. All the more reason to stay inside and have a few of these "Melting Moments" with a glass of iced tea :D

The original recipe for these come from The Australian Women's Weekly 'The Afternoon Tea Collection' cookbook. It's a nice, compact volume filled with pretty pictures of tea cakes, cookies, and slices. Even though I've got a thousand other baking cookbooks already (some of which I've only given a cursory flip through), I just had to buy this when I saw it at Costco, if only for the recipe for the delectable looking Melting Moments pictured on the front cover.

The cookies form a sandwich around a filling of lime buttercream. I was fortunate to come across the limes at a local Harris Farm supermarket for the unbelievable price of 10 for $2. I mean, I've seen these retail for $2 each at other fruit and vegetable stores. Except now I had more limes than I know what to do with. Lime iced tea, anyone? The original recipe calls for lemons, but since I did just come home with a whole bag of limes, lime buttercream it was.

True to their name, these cookies do indeed 'melt' as soon as you bite into one. I presented my sister with one when she came home from school today (congrats on starting high school, lil' sis!), and her eyes widened in surprise as her first bite sent crumbs a-flying, before gobbling up the cookie and asking for another. I had the same response for a number of taste-testers, so I can guarantee that these are worthy of your time!

I would recommend chilling the dough in the freezer for a couple of minutes before attempting to roll it into balls. The recipe didn't mention anything about letting the dough harden before working with it, which I felt was an over-sight. The dough right after mixing proved impossible to handle without it melting into a sticky gloop in my hands. Maybe the book was written during the wintertime? Anyway, chilling it will make it so much easier to shape the cookies, thanks to the huge ratio of butter in the recipe. Don't look so affronted; how else would you get the 'melt-in-your-mouth' effect? ;P

If limes aren't readily available, I imagine you could easily substitute in the juice and zest of a lemon or some other citrus fruit. It is preferable to use a citrus-flavoured buttercream, because otherwise there'd be nothing to cut through the richness from all that butter. The acidity comes as a nice surprise. It's so tasty I ended up making cookie sandwiches using leftover buttercream and some store-bought cookies.

Do give the recipe a go, and let me know how your 'Melting Moments' turned out :D And remember to drink plenty of fluids in upcoming days to avoid dehydration!

Recipe for 'Melting Moments' with lime buttercream filling


Adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly 'The Afternoon Tea Collection'


Makes 25 cookie sandwiches, or 50 individual cookies

Ingredients

For the cookies:
250g (8 ounces) salted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (80g) icing/confectioners' sugar, sifted to remove lumps
1 1/2 cups (225g) plain/all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (75g) cornflour/cornstarch

For the lime buttercream:
90g (3 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup (120g) icing/confectioners' sugar, sifted to remove lumps
1 teaspoon finely grated lime rind
1 teaspoon lime juice

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius, or 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Place baking rack towards the middle of the oven, closer to the bottom (this will stop the cookies from browning). Line cookie tray with baking paper.

2. Beat butter, vanilla extract, and the sifted icing sugar in a bowl with an electric beater or mixture until light and fluffy. Sift in the plain flour and cornflour, and mix until just combined with a spatula. Don't overmix, or your cookies will become tough!

3. Place cookie dough in fridge or freezer until slightly hardened. With floured hands, roll rounded teaspoons of dough into balls. Place about 2.5cm apart on a lined cookie tray (you may have to bake the entire recipe in a few batches). Flatten dough balls with a floured fork.

4. Bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes. Allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes before attempting to transfer onto a wire rack for further cooling.

5. Make the buttercream by beating together the butter, sifted icing sugar, and lime zest and juice until light and fluffy.

6. Once cookies have completely cooled, use around a rounded teaspoon of buttercream to stick together the two cookie halves. Serve with a dusting of icing sugar, if you like.

Yay, FINALLY!

Look what this lucky duck bought for herself as an early Christmas present today!

I found this brand new copy at a local discount bookshop for slightly more than half its RRP. Still quite an expensive purchase, but 1) it's Christmas! and 2) it's educational!

And anyway, Mr. Heston Blumenthal swears by it, and that alone makes it a worthy purchase ;D