Autumn is here and if I sound excited that’s because I am! It’s perhaps because I am an October child, but I love this time of the year. The sun is lower in the sky, nature’s colours become more muted, there is a rustling carpet of fallen leaves underfoot eventually, baking and crocheting (both things I like) is in, staying cosy is in, apples and pumpkins are in, what’s not to like?

This is why I have another early autumn inspired offering for you today. I made a tray of insanely moist apple muffins, fragrant with cinnamon and cardamom and studded with walnuts and raisins. What inspired me to come up with it was the abundance of delicious apples that have fallen off the apple tree in our garden, which won’t keep as they sustained some damage on their way to the ground. I am not a cider fan but I love baking and imperfect apples are ideal to use up in cakes.

After some tinkering, I settled on a tray of vegan apple muffins made with spelt flour. I flavoured them with autumn spices and added some raisins and walnuts to the batter for extra texture.

They came out better than I expected and became an instant hit in my house and with my neighbours. At first glance, it may look like I’ve used way too many apples in this recipe, but trust me, it is a fine tuned amount. Apples give these miniature cakes deliciously moist crumb and make them taste great, even after a couple of days. These muffins are easy to make – they come together in a single bowl and we have loved having these as an afternoon treat so I hope you will too.

MORE ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS

APPLES: raw, sweet eating apples, coarsely grated is what gives these muffins beautiful apple flavour and moisture. 400 g / 14 oz of grated apples may sound like a lot, but it really works, trust me. It’s 4 small-medium apples after coring so I recommend using a food processor with a grating disc if you have one although grating apples by hand, while a little tedious, works just as well.

VEGAN YOGHURT: I used thick vegan yoghurt here (The Coconut Collaborative) but you could use thinner one too just add less water (I am guesstimating about 2 tbsp, rather than 4 tbsp) to the batter to compensate.

OIL: any neutral tasting oil, like grapeseed, light olive oil, mild coconut oil will work well here. If using coconut oil be sure to melt and cool it a little first. If you wish to make these without any oil, replace oil with more yoghurt.

SUGAR: I used demerara sugar as it fits in with the flavours of these, but any sugar will work just as well.

ACID: a touch of acid is useful to help these muffins rise, it goes into a reaction with baking soda and helps to create light and fluffy crumb.

SPELT FLOUR: finally, wholemeal (rather than refined) spelt flour is what I made with muffins with. I really like how it tastes. If you want use a different flour, I am expecting wholemeal wheat flour to work well although the baking time may need some altering due to the fact that each flour type has different absorbency.

PS: To make these muffins GLUTEN-FREE:

• reduce the amount of grated apple to 350 g / 12.3 as I find that oat flour is less absorbent than spelt
• use 220 g / 7.75 oz (approx. 2 cups) of oat flour instead of spelt flour
• add 15 g / 2 tbsp of ground flax seeds to the water in the recipe and rest it for 10 minutes before adding to the batter
• extend the baking time by 10 minutes

Combine vegan yoghurt, oil, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract and water in a large bowl. Give everything a vigorous stir.

Next, fold in grated apples. Stir until the mixture looks uniform then add spelt flour in (roughly, no need to be exact) batches and all of the remaining dry ingredients. Incorporate the flour into the wet ingredients using a slow folding motion.

Finally, fold in raisins and chopped walnuts if using and voila your batter is ready to divide between muffin holes, decorate and bake.