I made this recipe up yesterday, because I had a few odd things to use up (some oldish skim milk powder and some light sour cream, as well as 2 small Granny Smith apples).

I think they're maybe a bit too sweet, and if I make them again, I'll try with less sugar (maybe 3/4 cup / 175g), and see if they work.  Alongside doing that, I might add 1/4 tsp salt.

If you don't have skim milk powder, by mixing it with the water I was really just making evaporated milk.  If you don't have evaporated milk either, you could use some light cream, or boil about 2 cups of milk down until you get 2/3 cup from it.

LOW-FAT APPLE VANILLA SPICE MUFFINS

200g peeled, cored and chopped cooking apple (Granny Smiths)
1 dessert spoon lemon juice
1/3 c skim milk powder
1/3 c water
1/3 c light sour cream
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
300g self-raising flour (or plain flour + 4 tsp baking powder)
1 good tsp mixed spice
230g sugar (I had some organic raw sugar - finer grain than normal raw sugar; could use caster sugar or brown sugar)

* Preheat oven to 170 C.
* Grease muffin tins fairly well with a bit of melted butter (I got fifteen muffins, but my holes in the trays are small).
* Put the apple in a saucepan with the lemon juice, and stew over medium heat until just tender.  Add dessertspoons of water if it dries out too much.
* When the apple is cooked, break it up a bit with a fork.
* Whisk together the skim milk powder and water (or evaporated milk), light sour cream, eggs and vanilla essence.
* Sift together the flour and mixed spice, then stir in the sugar.
* Stir the broken up apple into the flour mixture, so that the pieces get coated with flour.  Make sure to break up any lumps of apple that stick together.
* Make a well in the centre of the dry mix and pour in the mixed wet ingredients.  Stir everything together lightly until just combined.
* Turn into muffin tins, filling the holes about 3/4 full, and bake for about 30-35 mins, until cooked and golden.

I like to pop them into a plastic bag to cool, so that their outsides stay nice and soft.

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