fig muffins with sweet apple sauce: when darkness falls

Daylight saving pros and cons:

Pro: not depressingly dark when I wake up in the morning.

Con: depressingly dark when I get back home from work.

WINTER IS COMING. If you are lucky enough to live in a country where everything does not freeze over for 3-4 months...I hate you. Sure winter has its fun moments. Like the 30 seconds before the beautiful white snow turns into brown slush. But I gotta tell you, I don't love winter. I'm not exactly going to run away from it, but I wouldn't mind extending autumn.

This year however, November has been quite warm, so I'm a little scared that winter will be dead cold. But fear not! I have a new pair of awesome boots. So maybe I should change my attitude and tell winter to bring it on! 

Winter pro: snuggling and drinking heaps of chai tea and dark hot chocolate.

Oh yeah, and Christmas!

How could I forget that wonderful holiday when all the trees on the streets twinkle with lights and candy canes are made in abundance? I love Christmas for many reasons: decorating the family Christmas tree (and my own little one this year), making gingerbread cookies, eating my mum's delicious Christmas feast, buying gifts, making gifts, eating a huge breakfast before opening gifts and most of all, those couple of days where I lounge around the house and do nothing but watch movies, play games and eat with my family.

That's Christmas for me. I get excited for it every year and I secretly don't mind listening to Christmas music all day during the weeks leading up to it (alright maybe not all day). But before December hits, I've got a few more apple and pumpkins to use up.

So what does Christmas mean (or not mean) to you?

After making the apple-fig galette, I still had some figs to use up so I baked this recipe for the muffins, but instead of apples I used about 18-20 figs, cut into quarters and mixed into the batter. A tasty breakfast treat along with some sweet apple sauce,

Apple Sauce

Adapted from Sarah's Applesauce

Ingredients

4 apples, peeled, cored and chopped

3/4 cup water

1/8 cup granulated sugar

1/8 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cardamom 

Procedure

Place the apples, water, sugars and spices in a large sauce pan and cook over medium heat, 15 - 20 minutes or until apples are soft and stirring occasionally. Leave to cool and mash with a potato masher or blender. Place in a large jar once completely cooled. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or freeze. 

Enjoy it with muffins, scones, ice cream, pies or even mix into some oatmeal!