spice up your life!!

A group of lads came by the other day, with bags and bags of fruit for sale, off the back of a pickup truck.  It was fantastic - nashi pears (the size of mammoth grapefruit!), apples and pears.  Big bags, $2 a pop.  Where'd they get the fruit?  Who knows, but it tasted great, so if it was hot, I'm not altogether concerned (though I doubt it was, I imagine they work at an orchard and these were bags which didn't meet export requirements, or something mundane like that). 

Anyhoo, getting through three tramping packs full of fruit (a slight exageration, sure) was a big ask.  The apples did, eventually, start to get a bit battered and bruised, sharing their space in the fridge with many other veges, jostling for position.  It came time to accept we weren't going to eat all of them.  The really bruised ones would, most likely, get ditched ('cause lets admit it, unless really, really hungry, or hanging out for some vitamins, no one wants to eat the ones with big, brown, soft, bruisy spots).  So I stewed 'em and they became muffins.  Really yum muffins too - they'd work with all sorts of fruit too - apples, pears, feijoas, tamarillos, whatever you have overkill on. 

225 g flour
175 g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp mixed spice
2 cups stewed apples (I like to stew mine with a little vanilla essence and cinnamon)
125 g butter
1 egg, beaten

1. Set apples to stew (with any additions you fancy).
2. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius and grease a dozen muffin tins.
3. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
4. Beat egg with a fork, so ready when you need it. 
5. Once apples are ready (drain if there's too much excess liquid) add the butter to them and stir until butter is all melted. 
6. Add to dry ingredients, along with egg, and mix.  Spoon into tins and bake for about 15 minutes.