Apple Crumble Spiced Muffins

It takes you longer to say the name than to eat these muffins. I can assure you!
I made these because I wanted to make something sweet for my grandparents for when they came by and just baking a Focaccia wasn’t enough, especially not sweet enough. So I decided to make muffins and stick with one of the best recipes for muffins that has yet to fail me: Doughnut muffins. This time an apple crumble variation! It wasn’t exactly in the spirit of Queens Day, in which the Dutch have the colors orange and our flag-colors: red, white and blue all over the place. I didn’t have anything to fit those colors, but they enjoyed it and we ate about 8 of the 15 in one day with the three of us together. That says enough. It also brings me to the point that, somehow, when it comes to cupcakes and muffins, I always have at least 3-5 extra, even though the recipe always claims to make the standard 12. Having extra cupcakes to eat can be so very frustrating!



Topping
Ingredients:
50 grams flour
40 grams butter
30 grams sugar
30 grams chopped almonds

Muffins
Ingredients:
275 grams self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
100 grams caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mixed spices
75 ml sunflower oil
150 grams (Greek) yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 apple
1-2 hands-full of raisins

1. Start with the topping by adding the flour and butter and ‘crumbling’ it with a fork. You can also use a food processor for this.
2. Add the sugar and the chopped almonds and mix.
3. On to the muffins: chop the apple into small pieces and, if you like, leave the raisins to soak in apple or orange juice until needed.
4. Sift the flour, the bicarbonate of soda, sugar and spices together.
5. In a separate bowl add the oil, yogurt, vanilla extract and eggs together and whisk. Add the apple and (strained) raisins to the mixture.
6. Then add the dry ingredients and stir until everything is thoroughly mixed. Try not to beat the batter any more than necessary as the muffins might be dry.
7. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake cups and drop a spoon in each case. Crumble the topping over each muffin.
8. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius or 375 degrees Fahrenheit and leave the muffins in for about 16-20 minutes.



One thing I learned with making these muffins is keeping the wet and dry ingredients separately until the oven is done preheating. Then mix them and quickly pour them into the cupcake cups. This reduces the time in which the wet and dry ingredients are in contact with each other and thus reduces the chance that the muffins are tough and dry.
Other than that you just can’t go wrong with this recipe. I always use a bit more yogurt than needed for this recipe, just because it makes me feel healthier. I haven’t dared to omit the the oil altogether, something might go wrong when I try although I have no clue what exactly.
I made these apple spice muffins a few times without the topping which is certainly worth a try as well. Somehow the topping makes them look cuter though.
Enjoy!