Blueberry & Apple Muffins

A number of moms have been blogging about their home-baked products of cupcakes, birthday cakes and muffins. With some blueberry and apples sitting demurely in the fruit compartment of my fridge and spurred by these moms, I thought that I would bake me some muffins too! Since I'm not a chocolate fanatic, I'm rather happy with my blueberry and apple combination.

I was using two different sets of silicon muffin moulds and hence, you can see from the picture that my muffins turn out in 2 different sizes and slightly different shapes. Regardless, I think they tasted yummy.

Here's the recipe that I'd adapted from the "Baking at Home with the Culinary Institute of America":

Blueberry & Apple MuffinsMakes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
250g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
180ml milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
113g butter, at room temperature, plus another 1 tbsp
190g + 2tbsp sugar
100g blueberries
2 apples, peeled, cored and diced in 0.5cm cubes (I use Fuji Apples)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Shift flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon powder into a bowl and set aside.

2. Heat a dry frying pan and add the 1 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp sugar. Let sugar caramelised and then add the diced apples in. Stir and mix well to coat apples. Leave them to cook for about 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, blend milk, egg and vanilla extract.

4. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, cream together the butter and sugar until light and smooth in texture. Add the flour mixture in 3 separate additions, alternating with the wet ingredients in Pt (3). Then, increase speed to medium and mix until the batter is very smooth.

5. Fold the blueberries and cooked apples into the batter, working gently and just long enough to distribute the fruits evenly.

6. Divide the batter evenly amongst 12 muffins cups/moulds. Bake for about 18-20 minutes. Let muffins cool in the pans on a wire rack for 5 minutes before removing.

Viola! You've got yourself some delicious muffins. Bonne la cuisine!