Crab Salad with Apple

 

Oh, all those plans I had, to spend Christmas with our friends aka the childcare bubble, and have some semblance of normality. I have bought plenty of food to please all tastes and diets (gluten free, vegetarian, meat eaters). But as they say, man proposes, God disposes. On the last day of school our son got poorly, and a few days later we discovered he tested positive and we all needed to self-isolate.

We informed our friends, and I felt rather guilty that they had to change their plans accordingly, and would need to buy and prepare their own Christmas meal. 

I had to re-think what to do with some of the foods. The turkey crown went in the freezer. I did cook a small ham for our boys at Christmas and also a nut roast, plus lots of veggies for grown-ups, but didn't bother with the cranberry sauce or any side dishes like pigs in blankets or stuffing. 

On the original menu I was planning to do a big platter with blini as a starter - with smoked salmon and crab meat, as well as vegetarian "scampi" and pickled carrots. The crab meat tin has been sitting in the fridge for several weeks, and finally I decided to make a crab salad with it. It is similar to the Soviet crab salad, though in the days of my childhood we rarely had access to the crab meat (you had to live somewhere nearby the sea to get access to this product, or be a member of the apparatchik's family), and used the seafood sticks, which of course, are anything but crab meat. 

For this quick and easy recipe you will need:

100g crab meat (or seafood sticks)

1 small apple, grated or finely chopped

2 hard-boiled eggs, grated or finely chopped

60g hard cheese (like Emmental), grated or cubed

1 small carrot, cooked and chopped finely

1 medium potato, cooked and chopped

3tbsp aioli with garlic (or garlic mayo)

juice of 1/2 small lime

lettuce, to serve in

First, cook a potato and carrot in slightly salted water. Peel and chot finely. Hard-boil a couple of eggs. Once cold, grate them.

In a big mixing bowl, mix together grated eggs, potato, carrot, crab meat, grated cheese. Add the aioli and lime juice, and mix well. 

If you don't have aioli, mayonnaise (with/out garlic) will do, and lime could be substituted with lemon juice. 

Season with salt and a bit of pepper.

Spoon the crab salad into salad leaves to serve.

There are several variations on the theme. Some cooks prefer to use rice rather than potato. Many add several tablespoons of tinned sweetcorn.

It's a lovely, quite light old-fashioned salad.

I have googled what could be a vegetarian/vegan substitute for crab meat, and apparently, it is a shredded jackfruit, palm or artichoke hearts. I haven't tried them as a crab meat substitute, so cannot vouch for how much the flavour is altered. I love artichokes in oil, and often use them in salads, but the taste is very distinct, and nothing like seafood. I guess, you just need to re-think the whole concept.

In this recipe I used Leon Aioli, which was one of the products from the latest Degustabox. This garlic mayo has been the heart of LEON restaurant menus since 2004. This mayo is made with aquafaba (chickpea stock) instead of eggs, and happens to be vegan. To be honest, if I didn't know it is made without eggs, I wouldn't have guessed. So, if you're doing a Veganuary (which I don't), and are looking for great subs for family favourites, this mayo is very creamy and tasty.

Apple and marzipan loaf cake

Are you getting ready for the 2nd episode of GBBO tonight? Have you been baking, or bought something sweet to munch on, while chuckling at the terrible baking puns?
Last week's episode included a Battenberg- baking challenge. I've never baked a Battenberg in my life. It's Mr Kipling's Battenberg for me all the way, it looks pretty, and gives just the right amount of sugar rush.

Before I tell you what I've baked for tonight, let me share some interesting data. There were 7.9 million viewers glued to the screen last week, tutting at the bad jokes and gasping at the pineapple-upside-down-cakes-gate. The Showstopper was as silly as they tend to be. Why would you want to cut someone's head to eat it, even if it's a cake?!

I'm not a fan of Matt Lucas, and don't find him amusing. But I suppose, it's a GBBO tradition to have  cringeworthy presenters, whose jokes make you roll your eyes.

The restaurant discount supplier Enjoy Stevie decided to look at Google Search trend data on the bakery show, at the rise of different recipes, which have been discussed on the show, to see how searches increased or decreased. And the results are very curious.

The Key Stats revealed that:
- rise of the Marzipan searches increased by 4200%
- Bake-Off and Battenberg/Battenburg searches increased by 12000%
- The Upside Down Pineapple Revolution searches increased by 600%

The list shows just how influential the show has become.

And while I wanted to bake something with marzipan, I don't have time to make my own, and I'm also not feeling great (the seasonal colds have caught up with me). I popped into Waitrose today, grabbed a bar of Niederegger milk chocolate marzipan and this afternoon I baked an apple and marzipan loaf cake.
It's a quick and easy recipe. Don't think the GBBO judges would give me the Baker of the week badge, but my family would.

Apple and marzipan loaf cake
Ingredients:

2 medium eggs
80g demerara sugar
70g ground almonds
100g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
90g butter, melted
1 big apple, peeled and chopped into small cubes
half a bar of Niederegger milk chocolate marzipan
1tsp cinnamon

Beat the eggs with the sugar, mix in the ground almonds and sift in the flour with baking powder. Melt the butter, cool it a bit, then add to the cake batter.
Peel one big apple, core, and chop into small cubes. Add to the cake batter with the chopped chocolate marzipan bar and cinnamon. The cake batter is quite thick. Spoon it into an oiled loaf tin, place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C and bake for 35+ minutes. Check the readiness with a wooden toothpick.

Let it cool on the cooling rack before you start cutting it, it's rather crumbly.
Serve warm or cold, with single cream or ice cream.

If I'm not wrong, it's a biscuit week tonight on GBBO. Who are you rooting for?

Disclosure: The data above has been shared, courtesy of Enjoy Stevie. This is not a sponsored post.

Apple yogurt cake

My funny guy Sash loves watching cooking shows on YouTube, especially the cake-decorating videos. There is one particularly annoying creative lady who loves adding chocolate ganache to everything. And tons of frosting. Her cakes might look pretty, but the amount of sugar is staggering. Anyway, as long as it keeps my child happy, he  can watch any cake videos to his heart's content.
I prefer to bake easy cakes, with a minimal amount of frosting, or none at all.

Any bake with an added fruit or vegetables is a bonus for me. The last fruit and veg box had several green apples, not sure of the variety, but like small sized Granny Smith, i.e. sharp and sour. I know green apples are supposed to be better for you, as they have health benefits - more fibre, minerals, vitamins, blah blah. But my guys would only eat pink/red apples.
 A cake with apples is a perfect solution, and a crowd pleaser.

An apple yogurt cake is very easy to make, and doesn't use any fancy ingredients.

Apple Yogurt Cake
Ingredients:
180g sugar (I used a mix of demerara and caster sugar, 90g each)
2 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1tsp ground cinnamon
125ml Greek style yogurt
2tbsp polenta (optional)
190g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
2 medium apples

In a medium sized mixing bowl beat in the sugar and eggs, add the vanilla, cinnamon, yogurt, polenta, sift in the flour and baking powder and mix until well combined. The cake dough is quite thick.
Spoon it into a pre-oiled spring cake tin.
Peel two apples, core and slice into crescents. Arrange the slices on top of the cake.
Place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C.
Bake for about 50+ minutes. You might want to put a foil over the cake, so that the top doesn't brown too much.
Once baked, take out of the tin and place on a cooling rack. Add a sprinkle of sugar or icing sugar.
Serve warm or cold, with tea or coffee.

You can use either caster or demerara,or a mix of both. I've read somewhere (not sure who the celeb chef was) that adding demerara to caster sugar makes for a fudgier taste.
If you don't have polenta, it's not a must ingredient. I like to add a little bit to cakes for an extra texture, and it also helps with the soggier ingredients like apples, carrots etc.

I baked this cake in the evening, when the light wasn't the best for taking photos, and thought I'd take more pictures of the sliced cake the next day. By the time I realised I haven't taken any pics, the cake was almost all gone.

Apple almond tea cake

It was a National Tea Day in the UK yesterday. I felt like I had to bake something sweet to mark the occasion.
Reading Anca's recipe for Lamingtons, a coconutty chocolate treat from her childhood, made me dig out an old copy of Cakes & Slices Cookbook, a bookazine by The Australian Women's Weekly. I got it last year in the charity shop.
I didn't have any coconut, so Lamingtons would have to wait until I get hold of some, so I looked at what dessert from the book I might like to recreate.

I liked the sound of Apple almond cake, and had most of the ingredients.

I have adapted the recipe, adding polenta for texture and reducing the amount of sugar and butter. The grated apple makes it moist, but you can hardly taste it. I think next time I bake it, I will also add a finely chopped apple to make it more fruity.

Apple Almond Tea Cake
Ingredients:
1 medium apple, grated
100g caster sugar
100g butter (or margarine)
100g self-raising flour
80g polenta
2 medium eggs
100ml milk
a handful of flaked almonds

In a medium mixing bowl grate an apple (with peel on, if you want more fibre). Add the sugar, softened butter or margarine (I used margarine, as I've run out of butter, though I do prefer butter in cakes), flour and polenta and mix well.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add milk and mix until combined.
Grease a 20cm round spring cake tin (I also added a circle of parchment paper at the bottom, as my cake tin is quite old).
Pour the cake batter into the cake tin, and sprinkle a handful of flaked almonds on top. Place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for 45+ minutes. Check if it's ready with a wooden toothpick.
You might also want to wrap a foil over the top of the cake tin closer to the end of cooking to prevent the almonds from burning.

This cake is lovely with tea or coffee.

Did you bake anything yesterday to celebrate the National Tea Day?

And if you're curious what tea I had with a slice of cake it is Whittard's Jasmine Dragon Pearls.

Apple bundt cake

September is a great time to enjoy the harvest. We have five apple trees in the garden. Two of them are "having a break" this year, bearing no fruit, but last year we had so many apples, I was running out of trays and cardboard boxes to keep them over winter. This year the crop is more manageable, which is good.
One of the younger trees is a Golden Delicious apple. My Mum and I bought it in the garden centre about 4 years ago. This year it produced around a dozen of beautiful apples. I've already eaten one, and it was crispy and sweet.
Two old apple trees have been in the garden for many years. I don't know who or when has planted them, these people are probably long gone, but I'm sure they would rejoice, if they knew how fruitful these apple trees are.

They are a late variety, best picked at the end of September or early October. At first, they are pretty sharp and sour, reminding me of Granny Smith's but after keeping in the summerhouse for a month or two, they mellow in taste, turn yellow and become rather sweet.

Yesterday morning I ventured in the garden and picked a few windfalls from the grass.
After watching the first episode of GBBO last Tuesday, I fancied baking a fruit cake (they had some tasty-looking fruit cakes as their first task to complete).

My sons are not very keen on "proper" fruitcakes, which are packed with dried fruit, so my cake is a bit of a compromise, a hybrid of a fruitcake with a Russian apple cake Sharlotka.

It's a pretty easy cake, and wouldn't have scored many points at the GBBO challenge, as it's not decorated, but I rarely decorate the cakes, preferring just to add a bit of icing sugar or plain lemon icing. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the beautifully decorated cakes, like, for example, an exquisite Wedgwood Cake, baked by Anca at CookStyle. Her creation is a true showstopper.

Apple bundt cake
Ingredients:
2 medium apples (about 370g in weight together)
200g caster sugar (or less, if apples are sweet)
60g dried apricots, chopped
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp ground cloves
vanilla (I used freshly grated)
1tsp baking powder
3 medium eggs
300g self-raising flour
185g butter, melted

In a medium sized mixing bowl grate one apple (peeled before), and mix with sugar. Peel and finely chop another apple and add to the mix together with chopped apricots (softer variety; if they are too dried, then soak them in a bit of warm water in advance).
Add all the spices and baking powder. I used a vanilla grater, but 1tsp of vanilla paste or essence is fine as well.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Sift in the flour, and mix well.
Finally melt the butter, let it cool a bit, and add to the cake batter, mixing carefully.

Brush the bundt cake tin with melted butter or use a cooking oil spray. Scoop the cake batter in the tin, and place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C.
Bake for 40+ minutes. Check the readiness with a wooden toothpick. If your tin is of a different variety, it might take longer.

Also adjust the amount of sugar, depending on the apples you use. The sour/tart apples need more sugar, the dessert/sweet apples will require less sugar.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about 5-10 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack. Dust the cake with the icing sugar.

Serve warm or cold, with tea or coffee. For an indulgent treat, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or caramel sauce.

If you're looking for more baking recipes with the apples, try any of the following:
Apple Sharlotka

Belgian Apple Tart

Apple and Raisin Cake

Apple Semolina Cake

If it's the fruitcakes you're more interested in, may I tempt you with:

Boiled Fruit and walnut cake

Boiled Fruitcake

Fruitcake for Mma Ramotswe

Apple semolina cake

By Monday the boiled fruit cake I baked last Friday was a distant memory. To cheer up my guys after school, I baked a simple semolina cake. I haven't baked it for over a year, if not longer, so had to buy a box of semolina (Whitworth's).

Semolina or manka (aka mannaya krupa) in all guises and disguises is a staple ingredient of many Russian dishes, from a semolina porridge for children (standard in nurseries and primary schools, and typically rather awful) to dumplings for stews and soups, from coating to cutlets to all kinds to cakes and bakes.

If you like random facts about world cuisine, you might have heard of the Guriev kasha, which is a dessert made from semolina, with layers of creamy milk skins, walnuts, vanilla, candied fruit and apricot sauce. It's named after Count Guriev, who was the Minister of finance in the early 19C.
The story tells that Guriev has first tasted this dish at some Mayor's house, loved it so much that he bought the chef (a serf) and his family. The chef's name - Zakhar Kuz'min - was forgotten, while the dessert became known as Guriev's kasha (see V.Kovalev, N.Mogil'nyi, Russkaya Kukhnya, 1990).

There are hundreds of semolina cake (or mannik) recipes on the Russian sites and food forums, each cook has their own "secret" ingredient. The recipe below is very much what we'd cook in the Soviet times (minus the apple rings).

Apple semolina cake
Ingredients:
200g semolina
200ml kefir (or milk mixed with a couple of tbsp of soured cream or Greek yogurt)
3 medium eggs
150g caster sugar
zest of 1 lemon
200g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
150g butter, melted
60g apple rings, chopped (or raisins, or a grated carrot)

First mix the semolina with kefir (or milk) in a mixing bowl and leave it for half an hour.
Beat in the eggs and sugar, and mix well. Add the lemon zest, sift in the flour (leaving 1tsp to dust the apple pieces), baking powder, and melted butter, mix well.
Slightly dust the chopped apple rings with flour and mix into the cake batter. It will be quite fluffy and thick.
Oil the cake tin with the oil spray of your choice. I like to use the avocado oil spray, as it has a neutral taste, but plain butter will do (that would be more authentic actually).
Scoop the cake batter into the cake tin and place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C.
Bake for 40+ minutes. Check readiness with a wooden toothpick, if it comes out clean, the cake is ready.
Eat warm or cold, slightly dusted with icing sugar.
You could also do a light lemon icing drizzle over the top.

It's a tasty cake, with a fluffy, slightly grainy texture. Perfect with a cup of tea or coffee.

As mentioned above, you could add raisins instead of apples, or grate a carrot. Or leave it plain, without any fruit or veg.

This cake will keep well for a few days, if stored in a tin.

Boiled fruit and walnut cake

The decluttering gurus like Ms Kondo would have conniptions if they happen to go with me to the charity shops. I tend to donate a bag of clothes, books or toys about once a week, but I also do a weekly charity shops crawl and always end up buying a few little things.
Just this week I bought two paperbacks for myself, a couple of books for Eddie, a little porcelain bird for 50p (made in the USSR, and I had exactly the same one as a child) and a Neolithic hammer found at Beachy Head (as you do).
Well, technically the hammer was on display in the vintage shop, along the other Neolithic finds like scrapers etc. It was clearly someone's much-cherished collection, sold in bits and pieces.
Eddie and I watched 10,000BC on DVD recently, and I bought an old edition of Rosny's Quest for Fire on eBay, so it was all fitting perfectly well, according to my reasoning.

One of my recent finds was a cook book Cakes & Slices (The Australian Women's Weekly). It was priced 20p, like all the books in that charity shop (books for kids go for 10p each). I really don't know how they make money at all.
The cake recipes in this book are all rather old-fashioned and tasty. Nothing particularly fancy, not a single grain of quinoa in or Himalayan salt in sight.

A friend of ours was coming earlier today for tea, and she is usually happy to be a guinea pig for my untested recipes.
One of the cakes I wanted to try is called Wholemeal boiled fruit and walnut cake.

I have adapted the recipe, reducing sugar in half (I find that most American and Australian cake recipes use too much sugar), and changing some of the ingredients, but the main idea is borrowed from the book.

It turned out to be tasty, but definitely not a looker, as the top had split, which often happens when the cake batter is wet.

Boiled fruit and walnut cake
Ingredients:
50g dried apricots
40g currants
70g dried apple rings
1 teabag (black tea, like Typhoo)
150g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
235g self-raising flour
65g rye & spelt flour
200g butter, melted
45g walnuts
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp baking powder

First finely chop the apple rings and apricots. Place the currants and apricots in a pan with boiling water and 1 teabag. Bring to boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped apples and cook for another couple of minutes. Remove from the heat and strain the fruit using a colander or sifter. Discard the teabag. Let the fruit cool.

In a big mixing bowl beat together the sugar and eggs. Sift in the flour, baking powder, add the melted butter and mix well. Add the chopped walnuts and boiled fruit, and mix well.
Line the base of the spring cake tin with a parchment paper, and oil the sides lightly. Pour the cake batter in the tin.

Place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Cook for an hour and a half+ Check readiness with a wooden toothpick.
Cool in the cake tin.
Dust with icing sugar (optional).

You can use a different combination of dried fruit and nuts. My kids love apples and walnuts, and that's why I've chosen these ingredients for the cake.

It is a moist cake, fruity and not over-sweet. Judging by how much is left by now, my family (and friend) liked it.

I used Typhoo black tea which was one of the products in the latest Degustabox. You can use any other black or flavoured tea.

Easy apple turnovers

A bumper harvest of apples has been recorded this autumn, thanks to the weeks of hot weather in summer. Our apple trees were groaning under the weight of apples. I've been giving them away left and right, and using every day, mainly baking.
I have also put lots of apples in wooden and cardboard trays, and will keep in the cold summerhouse. Hopefully they will last long. Last year I still had some of our apples back in spring.

A friend was coming to our house earlier today, and I decided to make a quick batch of apple turnovers. I had a pack of Jus-Rol puff pastry in the fridge.
Having watched the pastry weeks on GBBO through the years, I arrived to a conclusion that life is too short to make your own puff pastry. It's tedious and laborious, and Jus-Rol works perfectly every time.
However, if you prefer to make your own pastry, I am full of admiration and awe, I truly am.

Apple Turnovers
Ingredients:
3 medium apples, peeled, cored, quartered and sliced
25g butter
2tsp Waitrose Christmas ground spices (mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, allspice, star anise, black pepper, tangerine oil, cloves\0
125g caster sugar
2tsp cornflour+ 2 tsp cold water
320g puff pastry, ready to roll
1 medium egg yolk, beaten with a dash of water

In a medium frying pan, melt the butter and add peeled, cored, quartered and sliced apples. Add the spices and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add sugar, mix well, cook on low for another 5 minutes. In a small cup mix 2tsp of cornflour with 2-3 tsp of cold water until you reach a runny consistency. Pour the cornflour to the apple filling mix, stir in, cook for a minute.
Let it cool before making turnovers.

If using a ready made pastry, roll it out on the parchment paper it has been wrapped in. Cut in half horizontally, then into three or four squares each, so you get six or  eight pieces of pastry.
Beat the egg yolk with a bit of cold water, brush each pastry square with the egg wash. Spoon a heaped tablespoon of apple filling onto each square.

What do you do with a glut of apples? Chutneys? Apple butter? Jelly?

Adding this recipe post to #KitchenClearout linky run by Cheryl at Madhouse Family Reviews, as I used apples from the garden and almost finished  Signature spice (just 1tsp left now).

Photo diary: week 37, project 365

It's mid-September already. I wonder if the Indian summer has started? It's been pretty hot today, when we went out.
Eddie's been adjusting to a new class and new teachers. Sasha is still at home, as his transport hasn't been sorted out, and I'm being stressed out by all this. They promise transport by next Wednesday, fingers crossed, it really is going to happen.

On Sunday morning - as expected - guys wanted pancakes for breakfast. Later I was pottering in the garden, picking up some apple windfalls, while Eddie climbed up and down the apple trees, like a mini-Tarzan.

On Monday I've been baking apple cereal muffins, using some of the windfalls I picked up the day before.

All last week we've been playing with Google app called Arts & Culture (and it's free!!!). It has an Art Selfie game, where you snap yourself, and get a match among the thousands of works of art. Some of the offered artwork left us in stitches, for example, I was paired with a portrait of a man who has big moustache and beard. I mean, how is that even similar? Eddie's face was mostly matched to girls' portraits.

In the last couple of weeks Eddie and I have been watching Merlin. There are five seasons on Netflix, and so far we're on season 2. It's quite same-ish, but rather enjoyable.
I haven't done any photos that day, except something for reviewing, so here is a photo courtesy of Eddie. Merlin and Lego people - and why not?

On Thursday Sash was staying overnight in his respite centre. I think we were all looking forward to having a little break from each other. It was almost a month since the previous respite stay.
As we didn't need to hurry home after school, Eddie and I went to his favourite Shake Shop, and he had a strawberry milkshake.
We also popped into a couple of toy shops, as Eddie wanted to check out if the Lego Harry Potter set he has an eye on is still available. As it happens, it's not there any more, I might buy it from John Lewis and squirrel it for Christmas.
Eddie is a big softie, and he couldn't resist squishing some soft toys.
In the evening we had a pizza takeaway and watched two episodes of Merlin on Netflix.

The clematis on the kitchen roof had plenty of blooms earlier this year, but for some reason decided to produce a few more late flowers.

As Eddie has a bit of a sore throat, we didn't go to the swimming pool with him, but Sasha went with his Dad. We agreed to meet up in Sainsbury's cafe afterwards.
It's been very warm today, but my daft child thought it would be amusing to wear a glove on one of his hands.

Apple cereal muffins

Apple season is upon us. We have several apple trees in the garden, including two old trees, which Eddie loves to climb on. These two trees have eating apples which are quite tart in taste. They're best picked by the end of September, and keep very well in boxes over winter, getting sweeter and sweeter.
I don't know what the variety is, they are not Gala or Braeburn. And we've got a big crop again this year. A lot of our neighbours have apples of their own, and you often see buckets of apples outside homes, offering them for free.

I also have a young Golden Delicious tree, which my Mum planted a couple of years ago, and this year we had quite a few apples. They were on a small size but pretty good.

Needless to say, there are just too many apples for us to eat. I still have some of the apple preserves left from the last year. And I've been offering apples left and right to anyone who's willing to take them.
Now is the season, when I'm trying to use apples as much as possible. Thankfully, we love them in all kinds of bakes.
Yesterday morning I was baking a batch of apple muffins.

Apple cereal muffins
Ingredients (makes 10-11)
2 medium apples
2 medium eggs
150g dememare sugar
125ml milk (plant-based or dairy)
80g butter, melted
250g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp cinnamon
a handful of cereal as a topping, or nuts (pine nuts or flaked almonds)

Start by grating two apples. You don't have to peel the apples, it will only add to the texture of the cupcakes. In a big bowl mix the grated apples, demerara sugar and two eggs. Add the flour, milk, melted butter, baking powder, cinnamon and mix well.

Spoon the cake mix into the paper muffin cases and sprinkle the cereal on top.
Place the muffin tin (I put the muffin cases in the muffin tin so that they keep the shape rather than go flat) in the oven preheated to 180C and bake for about 20+ minutes. The muffins should be golden brown in colour and well-risen.

They are very fluffy in texture, moist and sweet. Good for breakfast or in a lunch box. They will keep well for 2-3 days in a tin.

You can leave them as they are, or drizzle a bit of icing on top. As Sasha is off school this week, until his school transport is sorted out, he helped me decorate the muffins with the glaze and fruit stars.

Sasha scoffed a couple of muffins as soon as they slightly cooled. Eddie ate one after school, and ceded "Not bad!" - Thanks for your kind words, son!

In this recipe I used Dorset Cereals Spectacular Grains Raspberries & Apple with toasted spelt & popped buckwheat which was one of the products in the latest Degustabox food box.
You can use any of the healthier cereal or granola as a topping.
Ingredients include grains (68%) [wholegrain toasted wheat flakes, toasted sweetened malted barley flakes, toasted sweetened malted spelt flakes, wholegrain malted oat flakes, wholegrain barley flakes, popped buckwheat, sultanas, dried apple slices and freeze dried raspberries, pumpkin and sunflower seeds and more.

I also used a Good Hemp Unsweetened Dairy Free Drink (also found in the last Degustabox), as I wanted to find out how it works in baking. I've tried the hemp milk in coffee, and wasn't very enthusiastic about it. It has an acquired taste. However, in pancakes and muffins you hardly notice the difference.
And as we don't follow the vegan diet, I have eggs and butter in my recipe.

And here are a few of the apple recipes that might help you to go through your apple glut:

Apples stewed in apple cider

Apple bread

Apple Sharlotka

Belgian Apple Tart

Apple Turnovers

What do you do with apples - preserves, bakes, salads?