The only real difference between muffins and other quick breads is the pan you bake them in. But those little muffin cups allow for a lot more potential variation, depending on what you do at the last minute before baking. Anything goes when it comes to varying this master recipe, including the suggestions for Fruit-and-Nut or Vegetable-and-Nut Bread on it.
Let us have a look at how to make muffins.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons melted butter or neutral oil, like grape seed or corn, plus more for the muffin tin
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk, plus more if needed
Steps:
Heat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin and line it with paper or foil muffin cups if you like. Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat together the egg, milk, and melted butter or oil in
another bowl.
Pour wet ingredients in the center of the dry ingredients. Now, combine the ingredients swiftly, use a large spoon or a spatula, stirring and folding rather than beating and stopping as soon as all the dry ingredients are moistened.
The batter must be lumpy, not smooth, and thick but pretty moist; add a little more milk or other liquid if necessary. Place the batter into the muffin tins by using spoon, filling them about two-thirds full and handling the batter as little as possible. If you prefer bigger muffins, fill 8 cups almost to the top; pour 1/4 cup water into the empty cups.
Bake for about 20 minutes (about 30 minutes for larger muffins) or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Take it out from the oven and let them stay for around 10 minutes before taking them out of the tin. Serve warm.
Banana-Nut Muffins. These are good with half bran or whole wheat flour: Add 1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts, pecans, or cashews to the dry ingredients. Substitute 1 cup mashed very ripe banana for 3/4 cup of the milk. Use honey or maple syrup in place of sugar if possible.
Bran Muffins. Replace 2 cup oat or wheat bran for 2 cup of the flour, you can use whole wheat flour for the remainder if you like. Use 2 eggs and honey, molasses, or maple syrup as the sweetener. Add 1/2 cup raisins to the prepared batter if you like.
Sour Cream or Yogurt Muffins. Reduce the baking powder to 1 teaspoon and add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda to the dry ingredients. Substitute 1 1/4 cups sour cream or yogurt for the milk and cut the butter or oil back to 1 tablespoon.
Spice Muffins. Add 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon each of allspice and ground ginger, and 1 pinch ground cloves and mace or nutmeg to the dry ingredients; use 1 cup whole wheat flour in place of 1 cup all-purpose flour. Add 1/2 cup raisins, currants, dates, or dried figs to the prepared batter if you like.
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