Chef Ray: Carrot, Apple and Apricot Muffins

• These muffins taste really good but their ingredients are hard to guess. Lovely and moist, they may be kept in a covered container in the refrigerator for four or five days although they are unlikely to last this long! To shorten the recipe we tried leaving our various additions but none of our shortcuts tasted as good as our originals, so the recipe remains unchanged! We find that one or two of these muffins, with tea or coffee, make a satisfying lunch.

Heat oven to 390 ℉ or to 375 ℉ fan-bale. Place rack just below middle of oven.

Using scissors, finely chop the dried apricots into a large mixing bowl. Grate the carrot and unpeeled apple with a hand grater, pressing each fairly firmly into the cup. (use a large carrot and a large apple. A tangy apple, gives the best flavour.) Add all to the bowl. Quickly add the egg, egg white and oil and mix well with a fork so the apple does not brown. Stir in the vanilla, chopped walnuts, sugar and salt.

In another bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, baking soda, nutmeg (freshly grated from a whole nutmeg) and cinnamon. (If you high grade bread flour handy. use it because it holds all the other ingredients together well.)

Stir the dry ingredients into the large bowl with the liquid mixture and fold together, stopping as soon as no dry flour is visible. Using two spoons, spoon the mixture into 12 regular-sized muffins pans, well sprayed with Chef Mate Canola non-stick spray.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until a skewer pushed to the bottom of the centre of the biggest muffin comes out clean with no uncooked mixture near it tip. (This will probably be AFTER the centres of the muffins spring back when pressed.)

Leave to stand for 5-10 minutes before lifting carefully from the pans. Refrigerate in a covered container when cold. Warm slightly before serving.