Sunday Baking

And cleaning, washing, moving bricks, yelling at kids, ironing and a bunch of other stuff!

I broke out my new cookbook and, as mentioned in yesterday's post, made some yummy muffins for the kids lunchboxes. These apple and cinnamon muffins are seriously delicious. So delicious that my girl announced that chocolate was no longer her favourite - these muffins are instead. High praise indeed!

Apple and Cinnamon Breakfast Muffins

from The Thrifty Kitchen by Suzanne Gibbs and Kate Gibbs

makes 12 (I got 18 nice sized muffins)

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 Granny Smith apples, cored

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 cup plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 teaspoons caster sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180C and butter a 12-hole muffin tin.

2. In a large bowl, whisk the brown sugar, beaten egg, milk and oil together. Finely chop one apple. Sift the flours, bicarbonate of soda and 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon and stir in with the chopped apple until just combined (take care not to overmix). Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Slice the remaining apple and arrange on top of the muffins, bake for 20 minutes until risen and golden. (I didn't put the extra apple on top - I figured the kids would just pick it off and throw it away!).

3. Combine the caster sugar and remaining cinnamon in a small bowl. Remove muffins from oven and leave to stand in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar while still hot. Serve warm or at room temperature. (I didn't do the cinnamon-sugar thing - I didn't think they needed to be any sweeter and certainly didn't miss it from the end product. If you wanted to fancy them up it'd make them a bit prettier but I don't think you need it taste-wise.)