Apple and almond muffins

(makes 24 mini muffins, plus a couple of big ones - or 12 regular muffins)
Adapted from The Muffin Bible

Recently I've been feeling rather uninspired and have been browsing through our extensive bookshelf of cooking books and magazines. Between my husband I, our bookshelves are about 50% cooking or baking books (including second hand Delicious or Gourmet Traveller magazines), 45% Christian books and maybe one shelf of assorted language dictionaries and baby/parenting books. I'm not sure if this is an accurate representation of who we are but it was an interesting observation nonetheless. 
Anyhow, I rediscovered this wonderful Muffin book that my friend Lisa gave to me maybe 10+ years ago because I have always had this strong love for muffins. Now, it is making a comeback as I look for inspiration to bake with my little munchkin! This apple and almond muffin is delicious actually, very soft and fluffy, definitely a winner! 

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes (15 for mini muffins, 20 for regular sized)

Ingredients
1 egg
2/3 cup milk (or apple juice for dairy-free)
1/2 cup oil (olive oil or vegetable oil)
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups wholemeal plain flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup caster sugar (optional - you do notice that it's less sweet without it, but that may be good thing with a toddler!)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup slivered almonds (or finely chopped walnuts or pecans)
1 apple, peeled and finely chopped
raw sugar, optional 

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200 C. Prepare the mini muffin tray with muffin liners and greasing the inside of the liner with spray oil.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the egg, milk, oil and vanilla essence.
3. Stir in the flour, sugars, baking powder, salt and cinnamon until just moistened.
4. Stir in the nuts and apple.

5. Fill the muffin liners until mostly full then sprinkle on top with raw sugar (optional, but gives a nice crunch). 
6. Bake for 15 minutes for mini muffins, or 20 minutes for regular sized muffins, or until golden brown and a knife poked in the middle comes out clean.

7. Cool on a cooling rack for 20 minutes before packing into an air-tight container.