Apologies for the later post this week – it’s been a manic one! I’ve been doing work experience with Sainsbury’s Magazine (more on that next week) which has been fantastic, but left little time for cooking or writing. Luckily I made these last weekend:

It was a bit of an experiment, but I’m so pleased with how they turned out.The flavours to me are everything brilliant about Autumn – crisp fruit, warming spice, sweet but slightly savoury at the same time: a far cry from sickly shop-bought muffins.

Ingredients (makes 12):
– 2 apples (I use Granny Smiths)
– ½tsp lemon juice
– 100g unsalted butter
– 200g demerara sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
– 2 eggs
– 350g natural yoghurt
– 75g porridge oats
– 125g plain flour
– 50g wholemeal flour
– 1tsp baking powder
– 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
– ½tsp salt
– 1tsp cinnamon
– ½tsp allspice

1. Begin by preheating the oven to 180°C and lining a muffin tin with paper cases.

2. Peel and core the apples, then chop into thumbnail-size chunks and place into a bowl of water with the lemon juice. You can now put this aside until later.

3. In a large saucepan, gently melt the butter with the sugar (the sugar won’t dissolve, so don’t worry), then turn off the heat. Add the eggs and beat to combine, then drain the apples and stir in along with the oats and yoghurt.

4. In a separate bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, bicarb, salt and spices. Add to the pan and stir until just combined – make sure there are no streaks, but be sure not to overwork.

5. Divide the mixture evenly between the paper cases, sprinkle over some extra demerara sugar and bake for 25 minutes, until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.