Simple Muffins with Lots of Possibility
Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 8:14AM Breakfast on the weekends is serious business in our little home. During the week breakfast is hurried affair as we rush out the door consisting of english muffins with peanut butter and greek yogurt with granola. So on the weekends we like to do a little cooking or baking to start the day off on the track of more fun than utilitarian.
That said, some weekend mornings we find ourselves at the end of the grocery cycle and in a kitchen without a pantry that equates to not a lot of options. Sometimes we can scrounge up enough eggs and some frozen potatoes to pull together a frittata or a few leftover tortillas for a breakfast burrito... But in a pinch homemade biscuits or muffins will do the trick. Add a little jam to a muffin right out of the oven and it will beat a muffin picked up at the coffee shop every time.
I have been making this muffin recipe for ages. When I was kid and learning to bake it was from my mom's cookbooks from the '60s. This sweet muffins recipe came from one of those books (I think it was a Betty Crocker one). Some recipes are improved with modern makeovers but this basic muffin that can evolve to dozens of variations so easily is still just right as is. It is the simple muffin with lots of possibilities - depending on what you have on hand of course!
Sweet Muffins
Makes 12 muffins
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Butter bottoms of 12 muffin cups or put in papers.
Beat egg; whisk in milk and oil. Stir dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Then mix the flour mixture with the egg mixture just until flour is moistened; batter will be lumpy.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 18-25 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pan to cool.
There are many ways to modify this basic muffin recipe depending on what you might have on hand...
Surprise muffins: Fill muffin cups 1/2 full; add a tsp of jam and then add batter cover jam and fill to 2/3 full.
Blueberry muffins: Fold in 1 cup fresh blueberries with the dry ingredients.
Cranberry-Orange muffins: Fold in 1 Tbp grated orange peel and 1 cup cranberries (cut in half)
Apple muffins: Stir in 1 cup grated aple and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Sprinkle the top with a sugar, cinnamon, nuts topping.
Enjoy!
Reader Comments (2)
These look so lovely! I'm always on the hunt for a go-to versatile muffin recipe. I have the same liners too-- aren't they darling?!
I just discovered your blog last week and spent a lot of time browsing through it all. Everything looks so good and I'm excited to try more of your recipes. I just made these muffins with blueberries and ate 5 (small ones!) in half an hour. Will most definitly do it again!