You can use any variety of apple in these tiny apple crumb cakes.Julie Van Rosendaal/The Globe and Mail
These aren’t muffins. They look like muffins, they have similar qualities, but they’re not muffins. They’re tiny apple crumb cakes.
Every fall, when apple trees are loaded with fruit and it’s cold enough to turn the furnace on again, I crave apples – not the Macs or Red Delicious I once found in my lunch bag, but the kind baked with cinnamon and wrapped in sweet batter or buttery pastry.
What’s the most popular apple variety? Honeycrisp is voted the best, according to our readers
Fall also makes me crave muffins, perhaps owing to my Gen X upbringing; with Company’s Coming: Muffins & More in our kitchen and Tupperware containers of refrigerator bran muffin batter ready for quick breakfasts, muffins were a morning and after-school staple, now replaced by cereal bars, smoothies and Starbucks egg bites. (It’s perhaps no surprise that my first job, at 14, was at Marvellous Mmmuffins, which peaked in the mall-focused eighties and nineties, and sadly met its demise last fall when the only remaining Montreal store rebranded as Muffin Plus.)
These little cakes can be made using pears, with ground cardamom added to the batter.Julie Van Rosendaal/The Globe and Mail
Perhaps what I really crave are the warm comforts of home, and the smell of something baking – a signal that I was safe and cared for. Even back in 1985, when I was scooping batter at the mall, scientists at Yale were establishing the fact that the fragrance of spiced apple has a calming effect, even lowering blood pressure.
Many of us are aware of the realtor’s trick to bake something when showing your house in order to boost its appeal, but don’t consider the sensory impact baking can have on those you share your home with on a day-to-day basis – something particularly beneficial in this era of general overwhelm. It’s a simple, impactful gesture; when my son was young, I tried to bake muffins or scones in the morning and have something – anything – in the oven when he came home from school, solely for the comforting experience of waking up or walking in the door to the smell of being nourished and cared for.
Recently, The Globe asked readers to vote for their fall favourites.
It was a tight race but Honeycrisp emerged the winner in the final vote against Cosmic Crisp. Any of the contenders – and even those that were missed, such as Empire, Cortland and Northern Spy, or the apples growing in your own backyard – are ideal in these tiny apple crumb cakes. Or yes, you can call them muffins.
Tiny Apple Crumb Cakes
These are equally delicious with pears, perhaps with some ground cardamom added to the batter.
Batter:
- 1/2 cup sugar (white, brown or a combination)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin/apple pie spice blend these
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup milk, cream, yogurt or sour cream
Apples:
- 1 large or 2 small apples
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- A shake of cinnamon or pumpkin or apple pie spice blend
Crumb:
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup oats
- 3 tbsp butter
Preheat your oven to 350 F and line a muffin tin with eight paper liners or butter, or spray with non-stick spray.
In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, oil or melted butter, egg and vanilla. Add half the flour along with the cinnamon, baking powder and salt, then stir in the milk, cream, yogurt or sour cream, and then the remaining flour. Spoon into your muffin tins.
Quarter, core and thinly slice the apples. (No need to peel them.) Toss with sugar and cinnamon and divide them on top of the batter. In the same bowl, rub together the brown sugar, flour, oats and butter, or blend it with a fork, and pile the crumb on top of the apples. Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden and the apples are tender.
Makes eight muffins/tiny cakes.