Because my Mum isn't feeling 'great' at the moment (I think she's coming down with something), and I can't be there to tuck her up into bed (where she needs to be!), I thought I'd bake her a muffin and send it through the wonders of the Internet so that it'll reach her without making her feel queasy. So Mum, this is for you ~ an apple, pear and vanilla muffin.

Of my own devising, with help from the Green & Blacks cookbook for quantities of batter, these are little pieces of heaven. For Christmas Mum very kindly got me pods of vanilla, as well as organic, fairly-traded nutmeg and cinnamon. The vanilla was subtle but it was there and complemented the apple and pear really well. In the photo below you can see the little vanilla seeds, which looked very attractive!

I myself love the texture of the pear and the apple and the contrast they give. The pear stews gently and goes translucent, while the apple retains some bite. The batter wasn't very sweet (the original recipe was white chocolate, banana and cherry) because the original batter contained sweet elements, and although the pears were very sweet it needed some extra sweetness. This came from 'injecting' maple syrup into the muffins (using an actual syringe ~ my new favourite cooking implement! Oooh er, I think I'm going a bit Heston!) when they'd been put into the muffin tin. The result was unctuous, warm, gooey and gorgeous. I also drizzled some on top for sheer decadence!

Hope you feel better soon, Mum :)