imitation apple pie

Nope no mistake in the title. Imitation apple pie. I read Rei's latest post on Apple cinammon muffins and that sounded so tempting I couldn't resist not baking it. Moreover, D was all for it cos he lovessss cinnamon.

I just tried one (yes, that's why I'm getting fat) and it tasted like Mac D's apple pie minus the crunchy pie and apple sauce. The combination was superb and I liked how it wasn't too sweet without an overpowering scent of cinnamon.

I decided to "kill two birds with one stone" and halved the recipe and turning the other half into orange cinnamon muffins. I haven't tried the orange cinammon ones as D has packed them for his colleagues tomorrow. I managed to try the apple ones as we had extra batter for it, which meant we had extra muffins.

I omitted the ground nutmeg as I didn't have any on hand. Other than that, the recipe's a keeper =) oh! I also didn't have enough raisins, but the muffins still came out great!

I have been very much inspired by flickr contact RATUkek with all her cupcake flags/picks and very very very lovely packaging that I decided to make some muffin picks. Well, they can be used to tell the flavours apart too right? I love how the picks worked out on the muffins..I'm lovin them! =pp

For apple cinnamon muffins recipe, click here.

Orange Cinnamon Muffins (makes 6 muffins that are 5.5cm in diameter)

Dry Ingredients:
150g Plain Flour
1/2 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
75g Brown Sugar
20g Raisins
Grated orange zest (from 1 medium orange)

Wet Ingredients:
63g Butter, melted and cooled
1 egg (~50g), lightly beaten
93g milk
1/2 tsp orange oil

For the topping:
30g Plain Flour
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1/4 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
15g cold Butter, cut into small pieces

Method:

1) To prepare the toppings, in a bowl, add all dry ingredients and rub in butter till it resembles breadcrumbs. Alternatively, you can use a fork to break up the butter for you. Chill in the fridge for later use.

2) Preheat oven to 170°C. In a bowl, add flour, baking powder, cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder and brown sugar. Use a whisk to whisk the dry ingredients together.

3) Throw in orange zest and raisins, mix well.

4) In a measuring cup, whisk milk, eggs, orange oil and melted butter together. Pour the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir with a whisk, spoon or fork till just combined. It is important that the ingredients are only just combined. Do not overmix.

5) Spoon the mixture into muffin paper cups till about 2/3 full. Top with some streusels prepared earlier. Bake for 15 to 20 mins or till golden brown and when tooth pick inserted comes out with few loose crumbs. (mine took around 18-19 min)

Recipe adapted from Rei