Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Apple Raisin Muffins

Have you ever wanted to bake something and didn’t have all the ingredients? Did you go ahead with substitutions and hoped it would come out? That’s where I found myself last night.

I wanted to have a muffin for breakfast, a raisin muffin, to be exact. I searched through all my cookbooks and I did find recipes. But the ingredients were another story. My next step was the internet, where I found a recipe that was simple, yet I was still missing some the ingredients. I crossed my fingers and hoped that all the substitutions would yield me an edible muffin.

What I got was a large humble muffin, whose taste surpasses any of those overpriced dry muffins available at coffee houses. Oh, is this muffin soft and so good. The recipe originally called for 12 muffins, but I wanted big breakfast muffins, so I used a Texas muffin pan. I still cannot believe how well the muffins turned out. I guess if a recipe is well written substitutions will still yield one a good result.

If find yourself wanting a muffin but lack all the appropriate ingredients feel free to change out the wheat flour, half & half, apple, raisins and whatever else you don’t have. I did and it worked out just fine. The original recipe can be found here in case your are interested.


Ingredients:

1 ½ cups of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla
½ cup of sugar
1 large tart apple, peeled & thinly sliced
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 cup of raisins
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of salt
½ cup of melted butter
¼ cup of fat-free half and half
1 large egg

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400F degrees and line a Texas-size muffin pan with 6 muffin liners, set aside. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside. In a 2-cup measuring cup whisk together the melted butter, half and half, vanilla and egg. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and combined until just moistened. Fold in the apples and then the raisins. Divide the batter among the liners and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

31 comments:

Deborah said...

Sometimes the humble muffins are the best ones!!!

Annemarie said...

I know what you mean about substitutions out of necessity - sometimes I sub so many things that the product barely resembles the original. But well done for seeing down that adversity. :)

slush said...

They look and sound awesome! I am constantly subbing ingredients, seems I am always missing something.

I will def give them a try, I love muffins on Sunday morning!

Katie said...

Ohhh yum these look delicious. I would love to be a guest at your house for breakfast. Apples always make things lovely and moist and the cinnamon topping sounds fab.

Gigi said...

These looks soooo good! I'm always on the lookout for a tasty muffin recipe.

Silly question - did you measure the butter before or after you melted it?

test it comm said...

Apple and raisin muffins would make for a really nice breakfast. I had had to come up with some creative substitutions when I realize that I don't have all of the ingredients. Sometimes it is fun and other times it does not work out so well.

Gigi said...

Hi Gigi,

Ha! Another Gigi, how cool! To answer your question, I measured the butter first and then I melted it. Thanks for stopping by.

Anonymous said...

Mmmnn...these soud delish! I'll definately be having a go at these. Thanks for posting. Very impressed that someone is so organised to sort out their breakfast for the following day...I normally get to midday and realise I've still not had any breakfast! Hx

Sandi @the WhistleStop Cafe said...

GiGi these look great! I need some muffins to take for a weekend away. This might just work!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Haha, I find that I have the opposite problem - I have SO many ingredients on-hand, that I need to ADD (not substitute) ingredients into a recipe, to use up everything :0D

I love ANYTHING with apples and raisins, so of COURSE I'm quite smitten with those muffins - yum!

Mari said...

Don't you just love the joy and ease of quick breads? I like the fact that this recipe uses WW flour, I'm definitely going to add it to my "to bake" list.

Patricia Scarpin said...

Gigi, of course these are much better than store-bought muffins! Send one over, please? ;)

Rosie said...

Your cupcakes look awesome and what a great combo!

I am always playing around with ingredients and substitutions and its amazing what the outcome can be!

Rosie x

Anonymous said...

Oh gosh, they most certainly look better than those store-bought ones! It's been a long while since I had apple muffins, or anything without chocolate in them, for that matter :P This is going onto my must-bake list!

Cakespy said...

I might cheat on cupcake for one of these. They look gooooooood.

How To Eat A Cupcake said...

I'm such a procrastinator! I'm out of town right now, so I can't do the challenge until the DAY OF the post! YIKES!

sandhya said...

the muffin looks delicious... i will surely try these...

Judy said...

You know, some of my best recipes come from screations like this one, with an idea and then the necessary substitutions. And it sure looks pretty too :)

LyB said...

They're so sparkly, is that sugar you sprinkled on top? Muffins are the best, so versatile, you can get away with almost any substitution. :)

Mallow said...

Good job with the improvising - they look great!

Unknown said...

hey wholewheat flour! my dad will love this!

BitterSweet said...

Quick thinking! These muffins look great, you would never know that was borne of last-minute substitutions.

jasmine said...

I just had a conversation about ingredient subs today in the office. I think nothing of swapping this for that or using things of similar properties, while others seem to think of recipes as carved in stone.

Your "humble" muffin looks lovely.

j

eatme_delicious said...

Ooo those do sound and look good! I love giant muffins.

Sarah said...

I really want to make these right now! (Or just eat the ones you made, since they probably taste better than mine would...) ;) I love muffins & I'm always making substitutions because I absolutely never have all the ingredients. Hmm...I was contemplating making scones but might have to have a go at these instead...

Sarah said...

Uh...apparently I couldn't wait even a day...they just came out of the oven! Thanks for a great recipe (& yes, I did make a few substitutions)!

9crafty11 said...

Hi there I was motivated to do your muffins, but I'm from Australia, & I'm sorry but not sure what " half and half" is as an ingredient. If you want to know what is means here(mainly in one state) it is half draught beer & half dark ale, which I'm sure won't go with this recipe....then again it might!!? Hmm. /cheers Julia

Gigi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gigi said...

Julia,

I believe "half & half" is the same as "single cream". I hope this helps.

Anonymous said...

Hello Gigi Cakes! I made this recipe last night, into 12 muffins. There are only 2 left! But, I like how yours look better than mine - although mine were moist, the original batter was really stiff. And it pretty much stayed in that form when it was finished baking. hmm? You used a stick of butter, right? I'm just trying to think of how the batter could be more batter like! Great muffin though!

Unknown said...

hey i made these. tho i made slight chnages but still it was very good. thanks for sharing the recipe.