Cooking with Alicia & Annie: Apple Muffins

Apple Muffins



I made this recipe for the Cooking with Alicia & Annie contest. Here's the original recipe:

Wet Mix
2 cups grated raw apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Dry Mix
1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
1 cup self-raising flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, prepare pans. Thoroughly combine the wet mix ingredients. Combine the dry mix ingredients and mix thoroughly into the wet mix. Spoon into pans and bake for 20-25 minutes. Makes 12. Nice sprinkled with equal parts degrees F brown sugar and spice. These are lovely moist muffins and hardly need to be buttered. They will keep will, but are best kept refrigerated and then warmed before eating. Variations: Apple Raisin and Nut: Add 1/2 cup chopped raisins, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 1 Tbsp grated lemon or orange rind to the wet mix. Apple and Date: Add 3/4 cup of finely copped dates and 1 Tbsp grated lemon rind to the wet mix. Apple and Bran: Substitute the wholemeal and self-raising flour with 1 cup of flaky bran and 1-1/2 cups degrees F self-raising flour.

Changes I made: I used regular all-purpose flour since I did not have self-rising flour. I added 1 1/4 tsp baking powder and 1/9 tsp salt to make up for that. I also added 1/2 cup chopped walnuts to the wet mix.

My review of the recipe: As I was mixing this up, the batter seemed REALLY thick. Too thick! It was more the consistency of chocolate-chip cookie dough than muffin batter. I had to actually use 2 spoons to get it into the muffin cups. I looked at some other muffin recipes that I have used in the past and noticed that all of them contained between 2/3 and 3/4 cup milk for every 2 cups flour.

The batter TASTED fabulous and I was so optimistic that I had found the recipe for the delicious apple-nut muffins that were sold at the bakery where I worked in high school. But the finished product was too dry. I'm attributing this to the lack of milk in the recipe.

I will definitely make this recipe again, adding the milk that I think is missing.

Meanwhile, I think I'll make a little bread pudding or something with the muffins that didn't quite work. There's no sense letting all those good ingredients go to waste!