Farewell Muffins

Tomorrow is one of my co-worker's last day. :(
To bid her farewell, I wanted to bake up some goodies. The hard part was deciding on what to bake!! It was basically down to muffins, cupcakes or cookies. I finally decided on breakfast, instead of an afternoon snack in case she was leaving early.
So the debate was...what muffins!?!?! I know, I have such a difficult life...such serious dilemmas! My next serious issue was...vegan or "regular" muffins? I was also scared of baking up 24 new muffins with a recipe I haven't tried & have them not turn out. We all have experienced similar set backs. So I decided on regular muffins from Baking Bite's blog. I wanted something simple & easy, yet tasty of course! Finally, after many hardworking hours of searching on the internet, I decided on Cinnamon-Anise Chocolate Chip Muffins & Apple-Walnut Streusel Muffins. I was seriously considering Banana Crumb Muffins too, but decided against it since it's probably similar to banana bread. Deviation from her original muffin recipes, here is what I changed...
Cinnamon- Anise Chocolate Chip Muffins: Added 1 cup of infused anise chocolate chips (This was an accident, I had stored my chips with a whole jar of anise stars & the fragrant smell infused the chocolate!). Made 12 muffins and for some odd reason my muffins didn't turn out as tall & pretty as the one you see in her picture. I think I might have shorted the flour by 1/4 cup, but I can't be sure. I left my muffins in the oven for a few extra minutes.
Apple-Walnut Streusel Muffins: Finely grated two medium-sized braeburn apples and squeezed out the excess liquid, did not want to have soggy muffins again. Finely chopped 1 cup of walnuts, 1/2 cup for the topping and 1/2 cup was mixed into the wet batter. Made 10 muffins. Again, my muffins did not rise vertically high, but spread out horizontally instead, I think I would split among 12 tins next time so the topping will be contained within the muffin cup. These taste like coffee cake.
From previous muffin sessions, I have learned to not overmix & barely just combine the wet & dry ingredients. I think this key factor definitely contributed to a more cake-like result versus bread-like muffins.

**Co-worker feedback: Nothing but compliments about both muffins. The Chocolate Chip Muffins were first to go, but both were devoured quickly! Yay, that's what we like to hear! :)