Review: Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Good evening!

     This blog post is slightly different, because it’s essentially a review of the original recipe. I decided to bake some apple cinnamon muffins, using an “easy” recipe from a user on allrecipes.com. Normally I only share recipes I find successful and really like, but in the end I figured that, being a person who is simply passionate about trying new baking recipes, I could write my honest encounters with certain recipes. Believe me, they are not all perfect, and I have had a few failed desserts. The actual taste of these muffins is quite tasty and certainly worth baking, but the recipe needs some fixing. Below you will find the original recipe and an edited recipe, which I think will result in better muffins.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

     Upon inspection, you will realize the changes involve the amount of sugar, apples, and butter. Although the muffins were quite tasty, they were slightly too sweet for my family and I. Also, the original recipe does not specify that the butter should be cold, which is crucial for the crumbly coat on top! Moreover, absolutely do not bake at 200 degrees Celsius, because your muffins will be a little burnt. I had to use a grater to remove the bottoms of my first muffins, which I baked according to the original recipe. The following instructions are fixed accordingly, meaning they are slightly altered after my personal encounter when baking using the original instructions.

     First sift your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, baking powder); essentially you have to follow the order of the list of ingredients. Then add in your vegetable oil, egg, and milk. You can use either a whisk or an electric mixer, by the way. Then finish off by using a spatula to fold in your apple; the apple should be washed, peeled, cored, and chopped. Lastly, grab a smaller bowl and mix your sugar, flour, cubed butter, and cinnamon. Your butter should be cold and cut into many small cubes, so when you are mixing, you are simply making sure the butter pieces are well coated. Do not attempt to squish the butter and do not use an electric mixer. You should aim for a crumbly mixture, not a paste. (When following the original instructions, I used softened butter, so I had a butter paste after I mixed everything. After the muffins were baked, the tops were too crunchy and hard, so I preferred not eating the tops. This is why using cold butter is crucial.)

You see how the butter mixture is like a paste? Wrong!

     Next pour your batter into 12 buttered muffin cups (I used silicone ones) and then sprinkle your crumbly mixture on top. Make sure you do not fill until the top, but rather 2/3, because the muffins will rise a bit. (Since my butter mixture was like a paste, I placed a teaspoon on top of each muffin before baking, but then some of the tops spilled over like a buttery mess.) Bake for 20-25 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

This is how I tried to fix my situation.

     When comparing, you will notice my second batch looks slightly better, because I mixed the batter with the butter mixture, which helped avoiding the spillage. This is why they don’t look as deformed as the first ones.

First Batch

Second Batch

    Conclusively, I strongly feel that if you fix the temperature and butter situation, then you will have a good set of muffins. In fact, if you read the user reviews for this recipe, many explicitly mention that once the recipe is slightly fixed, the muffins are certainly worth a bite! I hope this helps you and I hope you enjoyed this slightly different post. I am starting to think of a category where I review recipes labelled as easy, haha.

Until next time!

– Zi