Spiced Apple Muffins

It's Foodie Friday so once again thankyou to Designs by Gollum for hosting it.

I love to make muffins with the kids; they are very easy, fast to mix up and equally fast to cook. I find muffins are a little more forgiving than some other 'cakes' recipes so long as you follow a few simple rules. So here they are for your baking pleasure:

* Always sieve the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix them around a bit with a fork as this adds a bit of air to the mixture and seems to make a lighter muffin. Basically it is very important that the dry ingredients are well combined.

* Mix all the wet/liquid ingredients together in a separate bowl before pouring them into the dry ingredients.

* This is the vital muffin tips so please take notice : FOLD THE WET AND DRY INGREDIENTS TOGETHER WITH AS LITTLE MIXING AS POSSIBLE. To mix a muffin scrap down the sides of your bowl and start to mix by bringing the spoon/spatula up through the mixture rather than in the normal round and round mixing motion as for other cakes. Repeat this process until there are no more dry pockets of flour. STOP MIXING NOW. Please oh please do not give it one more beat for good luck or you will destroy all your careful mixing work.

* Spoon the mixture into the prepared pans/patty cases and do not let it 'plop' off the spoon or you will knock some of your hard earned aeration out.

* Please do not smooth down the top of the muffin mixture or once again you run the risk of loss of the air in the mixture. A knobbly looking muffin is a light muffin.

Spiced Apple Muffins

1 cup self-raising flour
1 cups fine rolled oats
3/4 cup brown sugar (press it into the cup measure to be sure you add the full 3/4 cup amount)
2 teaspoons of mixed spice
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt

75 grams butter, melted
1 egg
1 cup raw grated apple (press it into the cup measure to be sure you add the full 1 cup )
3/4 to 1 cup of milk

Preheat the oven to 200*C. Sieve all the dry ingredients together, including the brown sugar (which I guarantee will be a pain in the backside, but it is worth doing) into a bowl. Here's a quick question, why do recipe books always ask you to place the ingredients into a 'mixing bowl' surely if you have chosen a bowl and place you ingredients in it to be mixed all bowls could be considered a mixing bowl by definition; I mean you are hardly going to place it on a plate, in a cup or in the toilet bowl for that matter are you! You do not need a 'special' bowl only used for mixing now do you; if you are anything like me I already have far too much junk in my house to be owning a specific bowl for mixing that is used for nothing else....sorry enough baking ranting, on with the recipe. Gently melt the butter and allow it to cool as you are going to mix it with all the other wet ingredients as this recipe does NOT call for scrambled eggs.

Mix all you wet ingredients together in a separate bowl, including the grated apple but hold 1/4 cup of milk back as if your apples were particularly juicy you may not wish to add the extra 1/4 cup of milk. You will only be able to work if you require the extra liquid once you start to mix. Now mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together following the technique listed above. Place the mixture in your muffin tray (silicone is very good for muffins as they can be quite sticky and tricky to get out of a greased metal muffin tray) and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to finish cooling and enjoy!