Rose Apple Muffin - Sweet Punch for August 2011

Hello Foodies,

 Okey I'm already a bit late for Sweet Punch this month, so I tried to post it today as early as possible.  This month our Sweet Punch team has chosen Strawberry Banana Muffin from Joy of Baking.  Yes it's Strawberry Banana Muffin, after looking out for strawberries a month, I gave up and thought will use cherries.
Finally I found that cherries season also finished.  I couldn't think of anything and decided to seek help with Sweet Punch.  Divya suggested me to use apple or mango, so finally it's Apple and Banana Muffin.  About these apple petals (hope it looks so ;-) ) on top, couple of days back, I remember one of  our fellow bloggers made these with a different muffin recipe.  Aw!  I have such a poor memory that I couldn't remember the person, sorry dear...

Those elegant shape immediately caught my attention, so I made those apple petals with these muffin.  Coming to the texture of the muffin, this is so great,  I loved it.  Do try it at home and enjoy with a cup of tea or even as dessert with some custard.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 20-25 minutes
Makes 6 Muffins

Ingredients:
All purpose flour- 150 g
Sugar- 50 g
Egg- 1
Banana- 1(mashed)
Apple- 1 1/2
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
Butter- 50 g (melted)
Baking Powder- 1 tsp
Bicarbonate of soda- 1/4 tsp
Lemon juice- a squeeze

Method:
Take half of the apple, peel and chop it.  Add a knob of butter in a pan, add the chop apples and cook it until softened. Let it cool down for a while.  Take the whole apple and slice it finely with skin.  Add a knob of butter to the pan, add the sliced apples and cook until it looks soft, add a squeeze of lemon juice and take it off from heat.
Sift the flour, baking powder and soda in a large bowl, add the sugar to this mixture and mix well. Add the chopped and cooked apples to the flour mixture and mix it well to coat the apples with flour mixture. Beat the eggs, vanilla essence and banana.  Add the melted butter to it and mix it again.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just to combine, do not overmix it, you might result in hard texture muffin.
Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.  Grease the muffin tray with butter.  Spoon the mixture into the tray.  Now comes the fun part, start making the floral shapes on top.  You can either make the floralshapes separately in a plate and then keep it on top of the muffin mixture or start arranging them in the mixture itself.  If you arrange them in the mixture itself, it bind well with the texture , but your hands get messy and bit tough.  When you arrange it on the plate and then if you fix it, it's quite easy job, but it stands out separately.
Right to make it, just take the sliced and cooked apples and start forming it like rose petals by gently folding them.  Place it on top of the mixture.  Bake the muffins in the preheated oven for 20- 25 minutes.  Carefully insert a skewer on the side to check if it's cooked.  Remove it from the oven, let it cool down for 5 minutes in the cooling rack.  Serve it while they are still warm.

Note:
If you find the floral shapes on top are bit tough, you can skip that process and make just the muffin, which is delicious on it's own.

Sending this to Joy from Fasting to Feasting and Iftar Nights