Apple Cinnamon Muffins ala FAD Mom

I made some muffins this morning, and afternoon. Yes, twice. I got the first recipe online through a friend and the picture looked really good. However, after baking it, the result was not the type of muffins that I liked. The muffin had a nice presentation and raised well but the texture was more like a steamed type of cake. I like my muffins to be cake-like, moist and buttery. Something that is more like Mrs. Fields' muffins


>> left pic: the 'kueh' like texture from an online recipe ( i used half brown and half white sugar). >> right pic: i altered from my cake recipe to get this texture (i used dark brown sugar).

The only other way would be to bake a moist brownie-cake in a muffin cup, my ideal muffin. Gosh, then why call it a muffin then. It should be a cake in a muffin cup! And if you want it as moist and chocolatey, it turns into a brownie.

So, I decided to make a muffin but without buttermilk I used this morning. Perhaps the buttermilk is what makes the texture like a steamed cake? Very much like the chinese steamed kueh, a little chewy.



Anyway, here is my muffin recipe, altered from my own cake recipe.

Ingredients
200 gm plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

80 gm brown sugar
90 gm butter, melted

2 eggs
1/4 tsp finely chopped ginger
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp vegetable oil
50 ml cream

Diced apple tossed in
2 tablespoon of brown sugar
half teaspoon of ground cinnamon


Cinnamon Sugar
for sprinkling
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp brown sugar


Method
Preheat oven to 185 deg C.

In a large bowl, sieve and whisk the flour, cinnamon powder, baking powder and pinch of salt. Set it aside.

In another large bowl, whisk the eggs lightly with the brown sugar. Next, add the melted butter, cream, vegetable oil, ginger, vanilla and mix by stirring (don't whip nor beat) it well. The egg mixture should be dark in colour, due to the brown sugar. Then fold in the flour mixture gently. It should be mixed till the flour is just absorbed. Don't worry if you have some uneven bits of brown sugar. (THAT is the BEST part in the muffins!) Do not stir more than required. You don't want the batter to be like a cake batter. Add the diced apples that has been tossed with cinnamon sugar mixture. The coated diced apples will give the muffins a bit of crunchy juicy bite.

Scoop batter into muffin cups. Sprinkle the top with Cinnamon Sugar mixture at the top. Bake at 185 deg C for about 20 minutes. If you are using a cake cup that is thin, after 20 minutes, test yr muffin by sticking the toothpick into the centre. If it comes out clean, its fine. If you see the sticky dough, it's not baked fully yet.

I only managed to make about 10 muffin cups for this recipe. I reckon it is because my muffin cups are rather large. If you use a cake cup, the muffins may stick the cake cup. Use a tartlet or muffin pan to hold the cake cups.