Rustic Apple Spice Muffins

Dappled sun and brisk breezes, warm cups of tea and trees laden with fruit, so begin the wonderful couple of months before winter is once more upon us. As I dig out coarsely knit sweaters and scarves I can't help but be excited for these winds of change. This fall has found me foraging, much like the rotund squirrels of the neighborhood, for local edibles. This has been largely facilitated by the wonderful non-profit group here in Toronto, Not Far From the Tree (NFFT). Indeed, because of this lovely organization I've been spending some much needed time away from my musty books, finding myself instead among the branches of various fruit trees, gleaning to my heart's content in a city which I've discovered to be an urban orchard of sorts.

As tends to be the case with apple season though, the delicious can often become overwhelming. Even after we've contributed a third of our fruit to local charities and another third to the owners of the trees NFFT sends the volunteers home with the last third. While that might not sound like much, it has provided our home with plentiful dozen upon dozen pounds of apples which have manifested themselves in various forms. Uses have spanned from the obvious; pies, crisps, waffles salads to the unusual; such as cooked with sausage, onion and spinach, or mixed with into coleslaw. Future projects will likely include apple pickles, doughnuts and fritters but for now lets focusing on something a bit cozier, muffins.

More fruit than muffin, these moist, spiced bundles of joy are loaded with chunks of apples and brimming with rustic charm. While they might not be winning any beauty pageants, they are oh so good with a hot mug of tea or as a morning pick me up to spike the blood sugar a tad. While I've yet to try them with wholewheat flour I can't help but feel that they'd pull it off!

Ingredients

Dry:

2c. flour 

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

About 1/4 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg

Wet:
1 3/4c. sugar

1/2c. light olive oil

1/4 c. apple sauce (preferably unsweetened)

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract or the seeds of half of a vanilla bean

Filling:

4 cups of apple, peeled and chopped small

Topping (optional):

Quick oats

1) Preheat oven to 350, grease a muffin tin (the top too as these make for big muffins!)

2) Peel and chop apples, cover with lemon juice if you want to avoid oxidation 

2) Combine dry ingredients

3) Mix oil and sugar until homogeneous

4) Integrate the rest of the wet ingredients

5) Combine wet and dry ingredients, stirring until just combined

6) Fold in apples and parcel into the muffin pan, dust tops with quick oats if desired

7) Bake for 18 or so minutes until browned and a toothpick inserted into the core comes out clean

Citrus and Almond Cake

Muggy. Hot. Humid. These are all words that many a Canadian loves to drop in reference to our sometimes overwhelming summers. As a people exposed to radical weather all year long we've grown into proficient complainers (though perhaps not as the global champions, the much acclaimed Parisians), ever longing for a milder climate we tend to attack the mercury's verdict, when it's cold it's too cold and when it's hot...well of course it's too hot!

                From a culinary perspective however, we're forced to acknowledge that no, the grass is not always greener on the other side. Our weather allows us to benefit from the best of both worlds, where we gripe about weather, you rarely hear any complaints about the wide range of delectable dishes which we dive into with relish all year long. While our winters are perfect for warm bread, pot roasts and soup, our summers lend themselves very well to leafy salads, grilled fare and light, sweet desserts. This brings us to today's recipe, a delicate olive oil based cake devoid of wheat flour which is inspired by the summery cuisine of North Africa. This wholesome cake is somewhat custardy in consistency, relatively high in protein and an easy gluten free option. In addition to this, the cake is amazingly moist, due to the peculiar method of integrating the whole citrus to the batter so get your blenders out folks!

                Desserts such as these are best served after a long outdoor dinner, preferably late in the evening alongside good conversation, appearing as an unexpected exclamation mark wrapping up a convivial evening. I suggest eating this cake cool or at room temperature, with a cup of mint tea and a substantial side of summer.

Ingredients:

1 Orange

1 lemon

1/3 c. Olive Oil

3/4 c. + 2tbsp. Sugar

4 Eggs

3/4c. Of ground whole almonds

2 tsp. Baking powder

1/4 tsp. Salt

Orange blossom water (Optional)

Icing sugar for garnish

Wash thoroughly and boil  the lemon and orange whole for approximately half an hour, until softened

While the citrus boils, grind your whole almonds to make a coarse flour, add baking powder and salt

Grease an 8 inch pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Let  the citrus cool and carefully slice the fruit into chunks large enough to be processed in a blender or food processor, if like me you lean towards impatience, make sure not to burn yourself as you cut into the fruit! If you see any seeds, feel free to discard them, however don't worry terribly as any ones you might miss are about to be pulverized

Using your machine of choice, add the olive oil and render the citrus into a coarse mush, feel free to add a tablespoon of olive oil or two more than suggested in the recipe to ease the process if the fruit is not blending easily

Add the eggs to the mixture, making sure it's cool enough not to curdle the eggs and blend into a puree.

Combine flour mixture, puree and sugar, pour it into the pan and bake for one hour until browned and set, brush while warm with orange blossom water

Feel free to garnish with a dusting of icing sugar, almonds, candied citrus peel or zest

Double Chocolate and Zucchini Muffins

For those of us you who are familiar with the cooking of the 90's and early 2000's you've probably made your peace with the idea of eating vegetables and legumes for dessert. There was the carrot cake resurgence, the attack of the black bean brownie and the West's new fascination with traditional Asian red bean sweets (look at us, we're multicultural, we do yoga and eat beans for dessert!) so at this point, I'm pretty sure that no one really bats an eyelash at the idea of eating a zucchini muffin...certainly one that is saturated with chocolate. As pertains to healthiness, I'm not about to tell you that this recipe is some kind of athletic rocket fuel or weight loss miracle, what it is though is a wholewheat muffin which you have the option of sweetening naturally and which relies on apple sauce and eggs to guarantee a low fat content all the while remaining incredibly moist. Seriously, you'll have no trouble passing this off as a normal muffin or cupcake, certainly if you slap a dollop of nutella on it as icing (oops, so much for healthy!) This ain't your standard lump of industrial palm oil and glucose syrup that's certain...oh and aside from tasting as good as any less forgiving muffin, it's a fast recipe too!

Dry Ingredients
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour or white whole wheat flour
2/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1.5 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate*



Wet Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup honey or sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
2 cup shredded zucchini (about one large zucchini)
1/2 cup applesauce
1cup milk

* In my case, I like a mix of 72%chunks and bittersweet chocolate chips, really it's up to you! Though if you go for milk chocolate I'd cut the sugar in the actual muffins to balance it

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350

The approach to making these muffins is simple enough:

First up wash the zucchini, take off the tips and put it through a blender with the milk, applesauce and oil.

Combine this mixture with the rest of the liquids. Mix the dry ingredients minus the chocolate and combine the, with the wets until homogeneous.

Add chocolate, stir briefly and bake for 20 minutes!