Apples For Muffins

Our answer

Nigella's Apple And Cinnamon Muffins (from KITCHEN) are made with diced eating apples. They are good for breakfast or at any time of the day. The original recipe was inspired by some slightly wrinkled, ripe apples that had been sitting in the fruit bowl for a while. The recipe is good to use up this type of apple but equally you could use any sweet eating apple even if it has not become wrinkled. We would avoid using sharper apples such as Granny Smith or Bramleys.

Usually muffins can be converted into loaf cakes and a 12 muffin mixture should bake in a 1lb/450g loaf tin with a capacity of around 1 litre/4 cups. You would need to reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/160°C Fan/350°F and let the loaf bake for around 45 minutes, though start checking at about 40 minutes. A cake tester should come out clean when insterted into the centre of the cake. A 17cm (7-inch) springform pan also has an approximate volume of 1 litre and so could possibly be used, though this size is not particularly common. If you were to bake the mixture in a 20cm springform then we feel that the cake may be a little on the thin side. Keep an eye on the topping and if it starts to colour too much during baking, tent the top loosely with foil. However, as we have not tried the muffins in loaf or cake format, we are unable to guarantee the results.