IMBB 13, My Little Cupcake: Hazelnut flavored Cinnamon Apple Muffins

Seems that across the ocean cupcakes are all the rage. I'm no big fan of cupcakes I have to admit: in my two years in the States I never really managed to come to terms with the ubiquitous butter-cream glazing everyone seems to love there. When Maki announcedthe theme for this edition of Is My Blog Burning? I long thought about having a go at being cool myself, and finally bake and eat cupcakes again. Think and plan I did, but in the end I decided to go for a naked cupcake version, the lowly muffin: not so hip maybe, yet much more to my taste.

Starting from the basic muffin recipe from Peter Rehinardt's Crust and Crumb I described before I played around a bit and came up with two recipes. The first one, a double chocolate cherry muffin (foremost in the picture above), came out OK but not as luscious as I had planned. It definitely needs more work before sharing a recipe for it. The second muffin, an Apple Cinnamon muffin with a twist, was a pleasant discovery. Much better than expected and an even better surprise considering the flavoring items where put together approximately by chance just by picking a few "left overs" in my cupboard. As we say in Italy: fare di necessità virtù, i.e. necessity is the mother of invention.

Hazelnut flavored Cinnamon Apple Muffins
makes 12 medium sized or 9 large muffins

150 g Demerara cane sugar,
75 g butter, room temperature,
1 large egg, beaten, at room temperature,
1 tablespoon amaretto (optional),
1 1/2 large apples, Granny Smith and/or Boskoop, peeled, cored, diced and tossed with a little lemon juice to prevent browning,
2/3 tsp cinnamon,
205 g all purpose flour,
40 g finely ground hazelnuts (or hazelnut flour),
3/4 tsp baking powder,
a pinch of baking soda,
70 g whipping (or single) cream,
75 g buttermilk,
To decorate: thin apple slices, pecan nuts or sugar crunch

Start by creaming butter and sugar together till the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg and keep beating till incorporated. If you wish to do so, add the amaretto at this stage.

Mix the cream and buttermilk together. Mix and then sieve the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Always mixing add the ground hazelnuts to the butter base. A little at the time, stir in the dry and wet ingredients, alternating each, and mixx till they're well incorporated in the batter.

Toss the diced apple with the cinnamon and fold gently into the batter. Line a muffin tim with paper muffin cups (I like to grease mine slightly) and divide the batter between them so that the batter is almost looks over the rim of the muffin baking tray. If you wish, top with whatever topping you might fancy.

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 180C, until completely set. Let cool and enjoy!
P.S. If left for more than a few hours the muffins will deflate a bit because of the baked apples shrinking. Taste will not be affected, but they will look somewhat flatter than straight from the oven.

Comments

[Irene]

This combines two of my absolute favorite flavors - hazelnuts and cinnamon! And they look terrific too!

[Jessica "Su Good Eats"]

Looks great but drat, I'm an American and bake by volume!

[Alberto]

Irene, thank you. BTW read your post on the IMBB? forum. Just write to me if you want to host an event.

Jessica, I actually know quite a few Europeans who bake by volume too. My "obsession" with exact mesures comes rather from my professional training as a chemist :-).

[Reid]

Hi Alberto,

Although I'm not really an apple fan, these muffins sound great. I'm thinking that hazelnut and cinnamon go together well, how do you think these would be with pears?

[Alberto]

Reid, I think pear would work great as long as it is one of the firmer ones otherwise you'd probably end up with a very wet dough. I could also imagine using peaches here, though not in season at this time of the year.

[Mika]

Hi,

been lurking here for a while now. Your photos are great and the recipes are unique and look so delish. I started blogging some time back. How do I know of the IMBB events?

[Alberto]

Mika, thanks for the nice words. To know more about IMBB just follow the link under the IMBB central header on the top right corner... the world of food blogging events awaits you ;-).