Glorious apple muffins

I've never had any luck with muffins, till I tried this recipe -- Success! I made three batches over three days, trying slight variations, and they all came out really well (and disappeared quickly!). A few points ... [1] you can get away with a lot less sugar (I found 100g total, or even less, works fine); [2] I experimented with using a mixture of bicarb of soda and baking powder, (my wife is worried about health issues related to baking powder) and I ended up using 1 tsp bicarb of soda to 1½ tsp baking powder (more bicarb than that and you can taste it); [3] instead of vanilla essence I used cinnamon, as other people have done, which I think goes better with apple (mixed spice would probably be nice too, but where I live I can't get it); [4] I also experimented with quantities -- in the original recipe I used a small egg, and when I increased everything by 50% and used a large egg that also worked well; [5] in response to RubyRed, I used ordinary eating apples from the garden, peeled, cut into small chunks, and they almost melt away, it works really well; [6] with my first batch I turned the muffins out of their tin straight away and cooled them on a rack, and they went crispy on the outside, not muffin-y at all -- next batch I left them in the tins to cool, and they were much better, soft and really tear-apart-able; and [7] you can use the mixture as cake mix -- I poured the mixture into a 30cm x 10cm loaf tin and baked it for 30 minutes and it made a very nice tea cake.  -  03 Dec 2012

What apples are the best to use? Do I need to use cooking apples?  -  19 Apr 2012

Fab, added spice and a handfulof sultanas. Great for lunch box  -  26 Sep 2011