Wait. No. Stop. Don’t do that. It’ll end badly. You know it will. It’s happened before. Back to the essay. I said get back to it. Ah. Well you’ve done it now. Might as well read one recipe. Or two. Or hmmm what was that breakfast you’ve been wanting to make for absolutely ages? Have you sent it to your sister yet (continuing to fill her inbox with food-related spam)? No. C’mon. Wilderness remember. You’re writing about wilderness, and how civilisation is bad for the soul. Not about food. So you need to stop writing this, and get back to that. 900 words is not a sufficient stopping point. You just got up five minutes ago to make tea. Yes it was green tea with lemon, and that’s essential to essay writing when you hit the 800 word mark, but another 100 words doesn’t deserve celebration just yet. You’ll lose your train of thought. Jeez don’t panic now! You’re likely to lose it faster. So click on the little X button and calmly make your way back to the essay-writing screen. You can do this. It’s possible. You’ve only written about 72 university level essays before (yes you can be proud of yourself for doing some speedy-gonazales maths there). Gawd that’s a sad existence isn’t it. But some are actually interesting topics and that helps…Such as this one. So get back to it dammit!

Sometimes it’s an immense struggle to not. get. distracted. To stay motivated with the task at hand and not allow your mind drift off to other things. It’s particularly difficult when said task must be undertaken on your computer, providing immediate access to a multitude of distractions. The internet is a black hole. It’ll suck you in and warp all sense of time. You’ll end up looking at pictures of cats. It always happens. I pride myself that if someone were to watch me mindlessly trawling through web pages during a lecture, at the very least it’s not Facebook. It’ll be anything food-related. However, although not exactly ideal when essays/assessments need to be started/progressed with/completed, there can be fortuitous findings from these ventures. Such as these Apple Cheesecake Streusel Muffins! Why, even the name is exciting! Adapted from Yammies Noshery (one of my go-to sites for all things procrastination), they are the most sublime melt-in-your mouth morsels.

Intensely moist with deep cinnamon and caramel undertones (thanks to the brown sugar) and little juicy bursts of apple…the basic muffin mix alone is a beauty. However, we’re not going to stop there. Nuh-uh. We’re going to take it to the next level with a swirl of sweet, creamy, vanilla cheesecake. And then sprinkle it with a smidge of cinnamon streusel. Ohhhh yeah. We’re all about the cinnamon today. Despite there being three different components to this marvellous muffin, it’s a piece of cake (hehe see what I did there?) And a welcome distraction from whatever task you should doing.

Serve as part of a decadent brunch spread. Or for dessert with a scoop of luscious vanilla ice-cream or dollop of custard…or both, because why not? Alternatively, face plant into the whole lot of them and forget about what you really need to get done. Food forget. It’s a thing. *This-website-does-not-condone-eating-away-your-issues-and-muffins-are-not-a-medically-prescribed-drug-thank-you-and-good-night.

Apple Cheesecake Streusel Muffins
Makes 8 muffins
Ingredients
¼ cup butter, softened
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 egg white
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
¾ plain flour
¼ tsp bicarb soda
¼ tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
½ tsp cinnamon
¾ cup apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm cubes
Cheesecake Layer
115g cream cheese, softened
½ tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp caster sugar
Streusel Topping
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
¼ cup plain flour
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
3 tbsp cold butter

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease 8 muffin holes. Beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffly. Gradually beat in the egg white, oil and vanilla. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, bicarb, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the apples and toss until well coated with flour. Add the flour/apple mixture to the butter/sugar mixture and stir until just combined. Divide the batter between the 8 muffin holes.
In a separate bowl beat together the cream cheese, vanilla and caster sugar until smooth and place a dollop over the batter in each muffin hole.

In another small bowl make the streusel topping by tossing together the sugars, flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Rub in the butter with  your fingertips to form crumbs. Sprinkle the streusel over each muffin.

Bake for 20 minutes or until springy to touch and a skewer comes out clean when inserted.

Set the pan on a wire rack and leave to cool for five minutes before gently running a knife around each muffin, removing and placing back on the wire rack to continue cooling.

Will keep in an airtight container for up to three days.

Source: Adapted from Yammies Noshery http://www.yammiesnoshery.com/2014/10/cream-cheese-apple-coffee-cake.html

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