Apple Crumble Muffins

The days trickle by slowly when you're down with chicken pox and are 1) unable to go out and face civilization for fear you'll spread the disease and 2) too itchy most of the time to do much but lie on the bed and lament your sad fate. Yesterday I just had an urge to bake but even after surfing through many blogs for ideas, i simply had no inspiration.. so I opened the fridge and spotted 2 large fuji apples my mom's colleague gave me and voila, I decided to bake some apple crumble muffins! :) But before I write about it:

I'll like to present my dad's cheng tang! He makes it quite often using the pressure cooker :)

White fungus, dried longan, lotus seeds, and some more in a sweet soup, a cooling dessert for sick people like moi~ 

Thanks momsie and dadsie for taking such good care of pox-infected me^^ ( My mom has also been boiling water chestnut drink for me, as well as barley and green bean soups, and helping me put anti-viral cream on my spots)

Back to the muffin.

What you would need for the apples: Check out the huge fuji apples atop the container of brown sugar!

Dunk it into a pot and cook the apples!

What you would need for the crumble : pardon the extremely bright shot

Mix em' up and knead with your fingers till they resemble bread crumbs! ( or bird feed, more like)

On to the muffin part! Cream the butter and sugars till light & fluffyyy~

Taking the opportunity to show off   my stand mixer bought earlier in the year! Really useful for all things baked :)

Sift the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt together and set aside ( lazy me didn't bother to sift :P)

After mixing the flours and milk into the butter-sugar mixture, this is how the batter would look! Can't get rid of that perpetual shadow hanging around no matter where I take the picture

Stir in the cooked apples, sprinkle on the crumble toppings and pop em' in the oven! 

^ Before baking

^After baking- they got tan!

More pictures!

Check out their softness :)

Certainly not the most appealing looking muffin but hey, it's the taste that counts! The apples made it really moist and it stayed that way even the next day. In fact, it tastes like the muffin version of an apple crumble pie. My dad took like 3 or 4 and he kept asking ' It's not very fattening right?' SURE dad, all food is not fattening if eaten in moderation ;)  Glad my family liked it though~

Apple Crumble Muffins: Recipe adapted from honeybeesweets

Ingredients for Apple Crumble Muffins (makes 12 standard):
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
75g caster sugar
75g brown sugar
2 eggs1tsp vanilla extract
240g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
130ml fresh milk

Apple filling:
2 medium to large apples, peeled and cored, cut into small chunks
50g brown sugar
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon powder

Crumble topping:
60g cold butter, cubed
60g brown sugar
100g cake flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon powder

Method:

• Using a small heat proof sauce pot, cook the apples together with the rest of the filling ingredients till it's semi-soft, about 10 minutes. Let cool before use.
• In another mixing bowl, mix everything in the crumble topping ingredients together. Using your finger tips to knead till it resembles bread crumbs. Set aside or refrigerate till needed.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder into a bowl and set aside.
• Cream the butter and both the sugars together till light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time and beat till well mixed. Add vanilla extract and blend well.
• Add 1/4 of the flour mixture into the butter & sugar mixture and mix well. Then add 1/3 of the milk in and again mix well. Repeat till all of the flour and milk has been added.
• Stir in the apple fillings and pour the batter into the paper lined muffin tins to about 3/4 full. Then scoop about 1 tbsp of the crumble topping over the top, gently pressing a little to make sure it will stick.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes till tester comes out clean and the top is golden brown. Remove from oven and let rest on cooling rack.

PS. I wish I had a nicer kitchen that wasn't so shadowy and cramped up so that I'll have more space/ nicer backgrounds for prettier food pictures sigh..

kbye~