Candy Apple Muffins for the Kid in You

On gray days, there's nothing like staying inside and spending your free time cooking frivoulous things. Like muffins. For some reason, I've always associated baking muffins with a return to childhood innocence. More so than cookies. Cookies can be very grown up (I've made olive oil and dark chocolate cookies which are meant to be enjoyed with port), but muffins are food for the kid inside of me- and there's still quite a lot of that!
I wanted to bake some muffins yesterday and decided to look to the season for inspiration. It didn't take long to figure out I wanted to make them with apples. Apple muffins are for the autumn what strawberry shortcake is for the summer. But what to throw in along with those apples? Aha! One look in the pantry and the deal was settled. I was finally going to use that bag of butterscotch chips my parents had sent me last year from the States.
What can I tell you except that these muffins are blooming brilliant! And I know that sounds rather big-headed, considering they are my own muffins, but  how else can I describe them? They tasted like the candy apples we made at grade school every year between Halloween and Thanksgiving. One bite and I was suddenly that pig-tailed girl playing hopscotch and trading Bazooka Joe comics.
Try them, I double dare you...

Candy Apple Muffins
Makes 12

250g all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 small Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped
200g butterscotch chips
80ml full-fat milk
2 eggs
200g sweetened applesauce
2 tsps vanilla extract
100g light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 200C and line a muffin tin with liners or butter and flour it. Sift the flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt into a large bowl. Add the apples and the butterscotch chips and stir well with a wooden spoon. In a jug, whisk the milk, eggs, applesauce, vanilla extract and light brown sugar. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and gently fold. Fill the muffin tin with the batter and pop in the oven for about 20 minutes. The muffins are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool completely on a wire rack. Eat them with a glass of milk...