Side of Frosting

And so we have reached my first muffin post. When I began thinking about baking muffins I knew I wanted to create a muffin with a flavour that I really loved that wasn’t available anywhere for me to buy. Toffee and Apple is the perfect autumn pairing, Toffee is one of my favourite flavours to bake. There’s something nostalgic about toffee apples, I remember having them as a child at halloween and funfairs (usually ending up with more toffee and sugar all over my face and hands than actually in my mouth). I love how simple muffins are to make, the batter is so forgiving and depending on the time of year it is there are many varieties and flavours. However, lets begin with this spiced Autumn favourite.

Recipe

Toffee Sauce.
70g Unsalted Butter
1 tbsp Golden Syrup
75g Dark Brown Sugar
145ml Heavy Cream
75g Icing Sugar (For later)

Muffins
250g Plain Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Mixed Spice
Generous pinch of Salt
125g Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
150g Light Brown Sugar
2 Eggs (Room Temperature)
1.5 tsp Vanilla Extract
50ml Milk
70g Greek Yoghurt
2 Large Cooking Apples

Method

Toffee Sauce

• Begin making your Toffee sauce by melting your unsalted butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.
• When your butter has completely melted, add the tablespoon of Golden Syrup and the dark brown sugar to the saucepan and stir in. Let it softly boil on a medium to high heat for approximately 2 minutes until the sugar has melted. Remember to continuously stir so that it doesn’t burn.
• Drizzle in your heavy cream stirring as you go. When fully combined let it softly boil for 1 minute and then take off the heat and set aside to cool.

Muffins

• Begin by pre-heating your oven to 210 degrees (celsius) and place your muffin liners in a muffin tray.
• In a large mixing bowl combine your flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon, mixed spice and salt and set aside.
• In a seperate bowl whisk together your unsalted butter and light brown sugar for approx. 1-2 minutes until creamy.
• Add your eggs and vanilla extract to the butter/sugar and mix until fully combined.
• Next mix in your milk and yoghurt until fully combined, then set the bowl to one side and get your apples.
• Peel your apples and dice (I cut mine so they are approximately 2cm cubes).*
• Now pour your wet batter into your large mixing bowl containing your dry ingredients and stir in with a spatula by hand. The key thing with muffins is not to overmix the batter, otherwise they will be too tough. Don’t worry if your batter is lumpy!
• Spoon a tablespoon of batter into each muffin case so they are 1/3 full, then take your cooled toffee sauce and spoon 1 tsp of sauce into each of the muffin cases (this will give the sponge a lovely hint of toffee). You should be left with about half of your toffee sauce, keep this for later! Then spoon one more table spoon of batter into your muffin cases, they should now be just over 2/3 full.
• Place them in the oven for 5 minutes and then turn the temperature down to 180 degrees (celsius) and continue to bake them for a further 15-20 minutes** – bake until golden brown or until a knife comes out clean when inserted into the muffin.
• Remove from the oven and take the muffins out of the tray immediately and leave to cool on a wire rack.
• Whilst your muffins are cooling sift your icing sugar into the remaining toffee sauce and whisk to create a toffee icing (this is what you will use to ice the tops). If you want your icing runnier or thicker feel free to add or use less icing sugar.
• When cooled, fill a piping bag and drizzle the sauce on top or feel free to place the sauce on however you would like to look as desired.
• You MUST eat whatever icing is left with a spoon…or hands, I won’t judge 🙂

*I choose to peel and cut the apples at this stage because if you peel and cut them at the start they will brown by the time you are at the correct stage to add them.

**By baking them at a high temperature for the first 5 minutes it really helps give them a high rise to try and get that desired ‘bakery’ look.