Now July is upon us, which quite frankly I can't believe, it seems like the past 6 months have flown by, but at least that means we now get to have a little celebration for Christmas in July. Any excuse to get people together and have a good, cheerful time I say.
While I don't think Christmas in July is a huge deal in Australia, it is celebrated by quite a few and I think it will start to take off more with all this freezing weather. It's a nice chance to feel what the other half of the world feels at Christmas time, where we can swap the good ol' Barbie in the backyard for a nice hot meal indoors and some freshly baked goodies from the oven.
These muffins will definitely fill the house with a sweet aroma and a cosy feel. This recipe is simple to prepare and combines lots of festive flavours to set the Christmassy mood. They are delectably moist from the apples, very flavoursome from the array of warming spices and obviously great for sharing around. They go perfectly with a soothing cup of tea in the afternoon.
Freshly baked Cran-apple-berry Muffins
Also, I used Jazz apples for this recipe and they worked out really well, still a little resistance when you bite into them to keep a nice texture through the muffin and they have just the right amount of sweetness.
Ingredients: Makes 12 -15
• 250g plain flour
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 150ml milk
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 80g dried cranberries
• 2 medium eating apples, peeled, cored and chopped. After I chopped them into about 1cm pieces it ended up being approximately 240g
For the topping:
• 4 teaspoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Method:
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan forced). Grease or line a muffin tray with patty cases.
• In a large mixing bowl, sift in the flour and combine all dry ingredients.
• In a separate mixing bowl combine all wet ingredients
• Peel, core and chop the apples and add them to the wet ingredients along with the cranberries and stir to combine.
• Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients and stir till combined.
• For the topping, simply mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
• Distribute the muffin batter evenly into the patty cases and put a sprinkling of the brown sugar mix on top, I add about 2 big pinches of the sugar mix.
• Bake for 17-20 minutes.
Now they're done and ready for the eating. Let cool slightly, but they are especially delicious while still warm. Crantastic.
