Fruit and Cinnamon Muffins

I totally had a different New Thing lined up for today.  As I had a mega sleep-in (I slept through my alarm and everything - I think that was a first, as my alarm tone is the old-fashioned car horn), I did not get to the place to do the New Thing... It will happen soon though.  It must.  Anyway, sporadically I need to cull my fruit.  I can't quite eat it at the same rate it is delivered, so when I know that some items have been there a while I have to find some way to use them up.  I had a pear, 2 kiwi fruit and 3 apples in the too-ripe-to-be-enjoyed pile.  Stewed fruit sprang to mind.  Also, on Wednesday I had bought a cookbook (very much on impulse) called Cooking from the Market: Fruit, and there's a recipe in there for Apple Cinnamon Muffins. 

New Thing #1 then, was to make my own fruit puree.  I didn't use sugar (I'm not a fan of sugar), and I didn't peel my fruit (nutrients, people).  I also decided to refrain from taking a post-puree photo - no-one wants to see something that looks like, well, vomit.

Then, the muffins.

Preheat oven to 200C, and lightly grease a 12-hole standard muffin tin or line the holes with paper cases.  Melt 150g unsalted butter.

Sift 310g (2 1/2 cups) self-raising flour and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon into a bowl and add 125g (2/3 cup) soft brown sugar.  Make a well in the centre.  Whisk together 350mL milk, 2 eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and pour into the well in the flour.  Add the melted butter.

Fold the mixture gently with a metal spoon until just combined.  Add 400g pureed cooked apple (or ready-made apple puree, or stewed fruit), and stir it through the mix.  Don't overmix, it will still be a bit lumpy.

Fill each muffin hole with the mixture - they will be quite full but they don't rise very much.  Sprinkle with 60g finely chopped walnuts.  Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden.  Leave in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool.

They smell amazing and taste wonderful.  As a bonus, this is the first time I think that the muffins have all come cleanly out of the tin.  This is the first time in ages - like, years - that I've made muffins.  Win.