Crunchy top apple muffins

(Makes 12 medium muffins)

375g red apples

210 g demerara sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

100 ml oat milk

1tbsp apple cider vinegar

3tsp flax seed

200g Self-Raising Flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1tsp vanilla extract

120 ml Rapeseed oil

+ muffin cases, muffin tray and extra sugar for on top

Method

1. Set the oven temperature to 180 degrees Celsius for fan or 200 non-fan.
2. Chop 300 g of apples into tiny cubes (the rest is for decoration) and mix in just 50g of the sugar and all of the cinnamon, set aside.
3. Measure out your milk and add apple cider vinegar. Give a quick stir and set aside to make buttermilk.
4. In a small bowl, add 6 tbsp of water to your flax seed and allow to sit so that a gel-like mixture forms.
5. Put Flour, baking powder, salt and the rest of the sugar into a mixing bowl and stir.
6. Add the buttermilk, rapeseed oil, flax-seed gel and vanilla extract, to the dry mixture. Mix the ingredients together to form a pasty cake mix.
7. Add the cubed apple pieces to the mix and leave for one minute so that the apples release some water into the mix. In the meantime, line your muffin tray with cases and cut the remaining apple into thin slices.
8. Give the mixture a stir, it should have loosened and become more creamy.
9. Fill each case ¾ full (about 2 tbsp) and then place your apple slices on top. Sprinkle each muffin with 1 tsp of demerara sugar to create your crunchy tops.
10. Place in the oven and bake for 25 mins or until a toothpick or skewer comes out without wet mix on (Cake crumbs are fine).

*Allow to fully cool on a cake rack. As muffins cool, they retract and de-attach themselves from their case, as well as becoming more solid. If you remove the casing before they are cool, they may cling to it a little.*

Article written by Aisling Geraghty- United States