It’s these kind of recipes that send out the right kind of whiffs to get me in a cheery autumn mood. All I need then to make me completely happy is a look out of the window onto the trees with burning leaves against a clear autumn sky.
Recipe for the Autumn Muffins
makes 12
300 g self raising flour
175 g soft brown sugar
250 ml yogurt or buttermilk
80 ml melted butter or vegetable oil
1 whole egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
50 g fresh cranberries (or dried if not to be found)
1 tart apple in little chunks
hint of cinnamon for the apples
1 tsp of cinnamon mixed with raw cane sugar for the topping
Making the muffins
Preheat the oven to 180 ºC / 355 ºF conventional setting. This is a basic muffin recipe that you can use to make all kinds of combinations with fruits and nuts and spices. Its simple, first you mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl you mix all the wet ingredients. Then put the wet and dry ingredients together, but do not over mix.
Fill a muffin tray with the mixture and sprinkle each heap of batter with the cinnamon/sugar mix. I use organic cinnamon that has a really intense flavor. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes (depending on your oven) and leave to cool on a tray. Or better: eat warm from the oven, but do not burn yourself on the pieces of apple or cranberries, they tend to be hot longer because they contain more water.
Tip: Make sure your ingredients, including your spices, are fresh. Like ground coffee, ground spices also lose their intensity very quickly. You can grate cinnamon yourself with a Microplane grater.
I also tried these muffins with speculaas spices and zwetschgen /quetschen jam (a sort of tangy plum) I brought home from France. Also very nice and seasonal for our ‘Sinterklaas’ feast.
Marieke says
Yes Fay,
I so sympathise with you. I think the molds would work better if you baked 100 times, one batch after another, but we also bake the cookies only a few times a year during the season. It’s probably not enough to get these cookie molds really going. I use some extra extra rice flour and that helps, but still I have to confess they try to hang on to that mold so I always have to help them along. How different are my new Nordic Ware bundt pans..the cakes just shoot out!
Greetings and wonderful Holidays!
Marieke
Fay says
Hi, Marieke,
I know it’s an old post but I was looking for a good recipe to use my pack of speculaas kruiden I bought in The Netherlands recently. It came with a lould and I agree wholeheartedly with you about the light swearing. I made a dozen with the mould to prove I CAN do it, and the rest with a biscuit cutter.
Thanks for the great recipe.
Fay
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Anya says
Dear Marieke,
My programme is scheduled for 2 years (master’s in english language and culture). i want to get my MA degree, thus going to hang around here for a while, as you could guess. 🙂
Marieke says
Hi Anya,
Sounds like a good plan. How long will you be in Amsterdam for?
M.
Anya says
Oh Marieke, thanks for your wishes, but as far as I am living in a student apartment where there is no oven – a cooker alone, thank you very much – I have a suspicion I will have to make do with stovetop improvisations. 🙂 Good Lord, this road of possibilities remains broad.
Your new banner captures the eyes of a beholder, so well done! 🙂
Time permitting, it would be so lovely if we meet (I believe I mentioned ealier that I’m in Amsterdam; studying) over a cup of hot chocolate or coffee to discuss, well, chocolate and coffee and other life pleasantries. 🙂 Let me hear from you on this one.
Marieke says
Hi Anya,
I wish you will have your very own oven very soon!
But there’s always something to wish for. We would like to build our own wood fire pizza oven one day. see traditionaloven.com
But for this, we definitely need a bigger garden.
Anya says
Oh, if I only had an oven in my small shared kitchen over here. 🙂 And still, your description does its own trick and sends me into that certain-autumn-day-mood, too! And you know what, thank you for this!