This recipe appears in Diana Henry’s superb book Roast Figs and Sugar Snow and it really is food to feed the inner man.
Although I often used buttermilk or yoghurt in cakes, this is the first time I’ve used sour cream. It produced a moist light cake and helped counteract the sweetness. I reduced the amount of sugar sprinkled on top but that was just a personal preference.
I made 12 large muffins which were voted delicious enough to appear on the croft breakfast menu.
Ingredients
- 400g plain flour
- 115g butter
- 150g soft brown sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 250g chopped cooking apple
- large egg, lightly beaten
- 25ml milk
- 200ml sour cream
Filling and topping
- 125g shelled pecans, coarsely chopped
- 125g soft brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- Line a muffin tin with grease-proof paper, paper cases or lightly grease.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (Gas Mark 4).
- Combine the ingredients for the filling/topping and set aside
- Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl, rub in the butter
- Stir in sugar, salt, cinnamon and apple
- Mix sour cream with the egg and milk, and add slowly to the other muffin ingredients
- Stir until combined, don’t overwork. If the mix is too dry add a little more milk.
- Add a layer of this mixture to the bottom of each compartment in the muffin tin.
- Sprinkle over half of the filling mixture and then add the remainder of the muffin mix.
- Sprinkle the remainder of the nut-sugar mix over the top if the muffins
- Bake for 20-30 minutes (or until a skewer comes out clean
- Cool for 5 minutes before removing from the tin.
