apple-cranberry mmmmuffins

i wanted to make apple muffins from scratch so i started with the base used for my kickass banana muffins. worked out rrrrrreally good, the kids keep requesting more!  :)

7 apples
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1 tbsp oil (of your choice, i use olive)
± 1/2 cup dried cranberries (i use the apple juice sweetened ones)
1 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup oat flakes
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

preheat oven at 350. 
prepare dry mix and set aside. (you can add a bit of ground cinnamon to the dry mix too)
peel 6 apples. in a large bowl, grate them to the core with a cheese grater (yep, you read right). add lemon juice and stir. mix syrup, eggs and oil together. add to the apples once blended. 
incorporate dry mix being careful not to over stir (ie stop when no more dry mix is visible). add cranberries and fold through (did i mention not to over stir? it's what makes the difference between rock-hard-muffins and fluffy-yummy-muffins).
scoop into muffin pan [i like to use x-large wax paper liners instead of butter, less clean-up + prettier].

now it's time for the 7th apple. peel and core, then cut into 12 pieces (one per muffin). cut each of the 12 pieces into smaller chunks (not too small, 4-5 makes a good size) and push them into the top of each muffin. for extra "mmmmm", sprinkle some oat flakes and ground cinnamon over the apple chunks. bake for 30-35 minutes.

NOTE: this recipe actually makes a little more than 12 muffins (14-ish). i've tried to cut it down but to no avail. one less apple: the muffins are too dry. i tried changing the dry mix: it's never as good as this one! your best bet would be to make a half recipe (or use the extra mix to make a galette style cookie, or bake in two batches of 7).