Toffee apple popcorn muffins with Metcalfe’s Jumbles

[AD/gifted item for review] Christmas in the Cosy Home house generally involves a lot of baking, and we do get a bit bored of mince pies! When we were asked to try new popcorn Jumbles from Metcalfe’s, we thought it was a good opportunity to put together a recipe that’s a little different this Christmas. Our reviewer was Sara Walker and she came up with the idea for the delicious Toffee Apple Popcorn Muffins.

Metcalfe’s Jumbles are brand new, and they’re available in two flavours – Toffee Apple and Eton Mess. They’re basically sweet popcorn mixed with ‘bits’ – dried apple slices and strawberry and meringue pieces, respectively. They’re available exclusively from Sainsbury’s, and cost £180 for a 80g bag.

I like popcorn, although I’m more of a fan of the savoury variety. My other half isn’t a popcorn fan, which was quite a relief as for once he wasn’t hanging around pinching the samples before I’d had a chance to do anything with them! As a plain snack, this popcorn has a lot to recommend it. We all tend to over indulge a bit at this time of year, and not only do Jumbles use real fruit pieces, are gluten-free, suitable for vegetarians, high in fibre and made without artificial flavours and colours, but they’re also only 107 kcals per portion for the toffee apple flavour and 80kcals for the Eton mess.

As a snack, I found it initially overly sweet but then very moreish! If you want to keep yourself off the chocolates this Christmas, then have a bowl of this strategically placed to satisfy a sweet tooth. I liked the slices of dried apple, as well, which gave a nice crunchy texture.

To try out its versatility, I decided to create a toffee apple muffin recipe as an alternative to mince pies. I’ve reduced the butter and sugar from a normal sponge recipe as I’m adding apples as well for moisture.

Toffee apple popcorn muffins recipe

Makes: around 6 to 8, depending on size

Ingredients:

• 2 large cooking apples
• 90g butter
• 90g golden caster sugar
• 2 freerange eggs
• 120g self raising flour
• Toffee Apple Jumbles
• 50g plain chocolate, melted
• Toffee Apple Jumbles, to decorate

How to make the toffee apple popcorn muffins:

1. Start by pre-heating the oven to 180 decrees C.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until pale and fluffy, then mix in the eggs until fully combined.
3. Peel and core the apples, and grate them into the bowl. Don’t worry if they go a bit brown before you’ve finished, it doesn’t make any difference to the taste!
4. Add in the flour, and mix until combined.
5. Pour half a packet of Jumbles onto a plate, pick out the dried apple slices and crumble them into the bowl. Mix to combine.
6. Spoon the batter into six or eight (depending on size) muffin cases. Bake for around 12 to 15 minutes until well risen and firm to the touch.
7. Leave to cool, then spoon a little melted chocolate onto the top of each one. Add four to six pieces of popcorn, and a couple of dried apple slices (from the rest of the bag), and press down lightly.
8. Put the rest of the melted chocolate into an icing bag, or fold it into a square of greaseproof paper and snip the end off. Drizzle the chocolate over the popcorn.
9. Serve on a suitably festive plate!

 The finished result

And here they are – don’t they look gorgeous!

Overall, I thought this popcorn was ideal to have in the store cupboard, either as a low-calorie treat over Christmas, as a baking ingredient or just for having in for guests and a film night. The 80g bags are a good size and would serve two generously, making them good value for money. I think these are a hit! To find out more about the packs of popcorn, visit the Metcalfe’s website.

By Sara Walker.