I can’t remember how the Apple Cloud Muffin recipe manifested. But in our house they have been a frequent site on the table over the years. Our Chinese friends love these muffins – perhaps because they are not overwhelmingly sweet, but are moist and fragrant. Here is the recipe:
Apple Cloud Muffins
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Mix together:
2 eggs
1 cup milk
½ cup shortening (oil okay)
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 raw apples, grated
Add to the liquid:
3 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
Mix together with as few strokes as possible. Put in greased muffin tins or use muffin papers. I prefer using no papers if we are just eating them at home.
Makes 18 muffins. You can’t consider them Apple Cloud Muffins unless you sprinkle them with some coffee sugar mixed with cinnamon before baking, which gives the top some crunch.
Bake 25 minutes at 190 degrees (400 F).
It made my day to find this recipe with great memories and the best tasting muffins ever.
We have made these muffins in our family for YEARS. I have always loved them because my Chinese friends love them too – and they usually don’t like things like muffins. Too sweet. But these are somehow naturally sweet and delicious. I remember one cold March morning when everyone was dying for Apple Cloud Muffins, and I needed to find some apples. I went all over, to several outdoor markets and along the farmers with their plastic tarps by the side of the road, desperately looking for apples. There were none. Finally I found three dismally small and somewhat wrinkled apples at a “fruit shop” and snatched them up. I managed to get enough apple to make the muffins between the three of them, and we couldn’t tell the difference. The fruit seller thought I was nuts to buy them. I wasn’t!