Apple and Sultana Muffins

When the Little People finish school for the day they are always without fail completely, ravenously hungry. Every single day, it's always the same. They come trudging out of the school doors straight on the scrounge for food. Heartfelt declarations of starvation. So I try and give them something to eat that's reasonably healthy, but not too filling before dinner. It's not always easy to get the right balance. Sometimes they'll be content with fruit, sometimes I'll give them cheese, a slice of buttered fruit bread, or a scotch pancake. Today I decided I would bake them something wholesome and yummy to fill the hungry gap between school and dinner.

As soon as I began to think about what to bake, I immediately thought about a muffin of some sorts. It ticks all the right boxes. It is filling, easy to transport and eat, and healthy ingredients can be incorporated by stealth. However, I don't have a good track record with muffin making. In fact, I don't think I've ever in my life made a successful muffin. My muffin making usually ends in disaster, with flattened, rock hard, inedible lumps sitting heavily in their pretty paper cases.

But I do posses an optimistic nature, and I felt ready to give it another go. I thought about what muffinish ingredients I had in the house and what sort of muffins I could attempt. Hmmm...no carrots, no lemons, no berries of any sort. Sultanas I had, plus a bowl of sweet apples. So I googled those ingredients and landed on this recipe. It looked straightforward. Simple even. I had all the ingredients (well almost, I did have to twiddle it a bit) and I began to feel quietly confident.

Muffin making basically involves assembling a bowl full of dry ingredients (in this case flour, baking powder, sugar and cinnamon) and a bowl full of wet ingredients (milk, oil and eggs) and mixing the two together to form a stiff batter. The wet ingredients go into the dry ingredients, it's always that way round. There is then some debate about how much mixing should be done. Some recipes tell you not to over mix, to merely stir-to-combine. This particular recipe instructs to "mix well", so that's what I did. Gave it all a good ol' stir around with my pink spoon.

The apples were grated and the sultanas thrown in, then more stirring. It was all pretty easy really, but still I began to feel a tad nervous. I had this sinking feeling that I might've over mixed the batter, that another disaster was in the making.

But nothing to be done other than give it a whirl. Twelve cupcake cases were put in a tin and liberally filled with the mixture. Into the oven for twenty five lengthy minutes.

I paced a bit with my timer. I suddenly felt that I would be unbelievably hacked off if this all went belly up. Plus, I would be without a snack for the after-school feeding frenzy which would be no good at all.

When the timer went off, I ran (literally) to the oven, crouched down and opened the door just a tiny smidge to get a glimpse of the muffin success/fail. I just needed to know if they had risen. I was so nervous!

This is what I saw.....beautifully risen, lightly golden muffin tops smiling out at me.

Yeeeeehhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I made muffins! I made fluffy-puffy muffins with a good chance of being edible!!

A really, seriously happy moment. I whooped a little.

They were obviously hot coming straight out of the oven but I could not resist trying one. I really, really wanted to see if the inside was as light and fluffy as I hoped it would be.

Well my lovelies, I can tell you that these Apple and Sultana muffins were an outstanding success. They came out just right. And furthermore, the Little People really enjoyed them. I asked them what they thought and they were pronounced "well good", which in Yorkshire translates as Most Excellent.

Pheww. Who knew that baking for one's children could be so fraught with nervousness?

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Comments

[barb]

Those look YUMMY! Going to give it a try. Thanks Lucy. Barb

[Louise]

They look lovely.

[grannytaughtmetocrochet]

Congrats on your success!

The last muffins I made were Carott Cake Muffins, from Nigells Domestic Goddess book. They were amazing, apart from the frosting was too runny so they looked like snow bottomed mountains instead of snow capped. Oops. Hubby's work mates never moan at a wrong batch though!

K x

[Ana]

how do you find so much mood??? I'm so tired for be mom,and homemaking, and wife, its so hard!!! I envy you. Sorry my English... I'm brazilian. Please write to me:apstorm@hotmail.com

[Helen]

They look great - will have to give them a whirl.
Niblet is a big fan of some carroty/cinnamony muffins called honey buns in easy peasy sweetie pie cookbook.

[louise]

well done on your success! They sound delicious.

[Sandra]

Ah, delicious! A snack we like around here: Keep various fruits in the freezer (blueberries, etc). Cut an apple into a large bowl, cover with whatever frozen fruits you have around, sprinkle a tsp of sugar over the fruit, microwave for 2 min 30 seconds. Voila, it is done!

[Libby]

They not only look good, in my imagination I can smell that opened hot muffin in all of its cinnamony, appley yumminess! Thanks for the suggestion and the recipe!

[Deco Cat]

They look and sound delicious!

[Fleur Cotton]

Kids are always your worst critics .. so well done finding something that was 'well good'!

Happy baking
Fleur xx

[Rachael Iddon]

Well done, they look lovely. I've got a no-fail muffin recipe that is very similar to the one you linked to. Mine was given to me by a school food technology teacher who said she had trialled lots of them. I used to make it for my cake and tea section of pregnancy yoga classes (that was the bit people came for, not the yoga). It was perfect, quick to make, just the right quantity and I could use up whatever I had to hand for a flavour. Anyway, if you want a comparison, it's on my blog as 'no fail muffins'. I must make it again for my little peeps soon.

[Nellie Dean]

They look lovely, and I don't like sultanas!

[Carol]

They look delicious, well done on cracking the muffin making!
If I wasn't trying to lose a few pounds I'd be making some myself.
Carol xx

[Rose-Marguerite]

They look delicious! Miam, as we say in France! Congratulations! It's a success. I should try...

[WoollyBudgie]

They look great! I'm feeling hungry now, after reading that post! What a wonderful mum your children have! Rachel x

[Rachell]

Oooh Lucy they look really yummy. Baking is a matter of luck and cosmic force - like gardening - I believe. Looks like both were on your side! x

[Penny Peberdy]

Well Done!

[cate]

This delicious looking snack is just what I need today, how did you know? I shall make a double batch as there are extra kids coming home today with mine. Thank you Lucy!

[Bari Jo]

Bravo! I am sitting here for a quick break, tea cup in hand, wishing I was sampling one of your muffins at the moment! I, too, have never made the perfect muffin - I am in awe!!!!!

[Tammy]

I LOVE to bake and my favorite site for awesome, scrumptious recipes ( I own tons of the cookbooks too!) is tasteofhome.com . Totally wonderful site with more recipes than you could ever possibly try.. I love all your pictures Lucy! There is always so much color in them! I even love your colorful measuring spoons! Thanks for sharing with us!

[Nicki]

Oooh, apple, cinnamon and sultanas are lip-smacking in a muffin. Yum. Might try that recipe, sounds delish.

Muffinish might just be my new favourite word!

Nicki x

[Barbara]

I love muffins but don't have a good recipe for them. I end up using the boxed type. I will have to give it a go.

[Thriftwood]

Lovely, Lucy! Xx

[elpha]

Aha! I'm down to the very last 2 or 3 apples scrumped (with permission) from our neighbours orchard last autumn and stored. I thought we were about appled-out having had crumbles/pies/baked/stewed/jam etc for months, but I think we could all raise some interest for those muffins. I shall set to tomorrow. Thank you Lucy for yet more inspiration

[Sherry @ A Happy Valentine]

Your muffins look wonderful! I'm baking a pineapple cake for my hungry guys today. :)