Apple Mango Muffins

I used to dread baking because I always made a floury mess on the kitchen counter. But I went to visit a friend once who had just baked muffins in the morning like it was an everyday affair after which her kitchen seemed so clean and I thought, why can't I do it too? So I went and bought a box of muffin premix-just add water and bake. It was soo easy. And I found that as long as you use ONE big bowl to mix everything in, and close all your containers as you use them, it won't seem like such a mess, and not THAT much to clean up. And then later I figured I can make better muffins for less than the bought premix-duh. And that's how I started baking muffins. All the time. I've got 50 muffins sitting in the freezer.

I looked at a few muffin recipes online and found a common denominator between all of them-one cup of sugar, two cups self-raising flour,  half cup of olive oil, one cup milk, one cup any mashed fruit, and any other seasoning like cinnamon etc. So I've been making up muffin recipes with that as a base. By the way, I love self-raising flour. I didn't bake much in Malaysia, and didn't use self-raising flour, so everytime I did attempt to bake I had to sift baking soda and bicarbonate of soda through it and nothing ever came out right coz I didn't sift it evenly. And I made a floury mess.

So you can use this recipe (I call it the Universal Muffin Recipe) to make any fruit flavored muffin. Just be creative! I've used leftover carrots and zuchinis and it's tasted great.

This is what you need.

• 1 cup Castor sugar
• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 cup milk (I've been using powdered milk-1/3 cup milk, 2/3 cups water)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 apple
• 1 can mangos+juice (1. You can eat up to 3 pieces of mango MAX. 2. If not using juice, substitute with 1 egg or half cup water)
• Paper muffin cups

Before you start, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Slice and dice the apples.



Add mangos and use a blender/food processor to puree. The canned mango juice helps with the pureeing. If using other fruits, use half cup water or an egg and blend to a pulp.



Add 1 cup castor  sugar.



Add  2 cups flour.



Drizzle in olive oil. I'm not exact about how much olive oil I use. About 1/3 cup sounds right.



Mix everything together but don't beat the heck out of it.  10-15 strokes with a spatula should  be enough. It should still be a bit lumpy and personable.



If the mix is too dry, add the half cup of water slowly and stop to mix again. The consistency is about right when you need two spoons of the batter to fill the muffin tin.

Because I'm lazy, I prefer to use muffin cups instead of greasing each hollow in the muffin tin. Fill each cup till 2/3 full.



Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 30-40 minutes. If not using a fan-forced oven, turn the  muffins around after 25 minutes. Muffins are done when a toothpick in the centre comes out clean and tops are golden.



I overfilled the cups and the muffins are joined at the top. But they tasted great nonetheless!

Muffins are great for freezing. Just Gladwrap each one individually and freeze. To defrost, microwave on high for 30 seconds. I find that muffins left to defrost on its own in Gladwrap gets a bit soggy, but a microwaved one comes out perfect like it was just baked.