Muffins Six and a Half Ways

Blueberry

A while back I posted on making your own muffin mixes. You probably noticed that it’s a basic muffin mix, very plain. I thought I’d share my favorite ways to jazz it up.

Basic Muffin Mix:

Muffin Dry Mix Ingredients
1 cup white flour
1 cup wheat flour
½ cup sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

Muffin Wet Ingredients
1 egg
¾ cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil or melted butter

Mix dry ingredients, sift as needed to remove lumps. Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl. Pour wet ingredients into dry, and stir until just combined (don’t over-stir). Fill muffin cups 1/2 to 2/3 full with batter. Cook at 400 degrees F for 18-20 minutes.

The variations should be done at the time of mixing and baking and are not suitable for storing as part of the muffin mix.

Variations:
Blueberry – add 1 cup blueberries to the dry ingredients, stir, then add the wet ingredients as directed (the coating of flour helps suspend the blueberries in the batter so they don’t all sink to the bottom of the muffin)
Banana – add 2-3 mashed, ripe bananas to the wet ingredients, decrease milk to 2/3 cup, add 1 tsp cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg to dry ingredients
Carrot “Cake” – add 1 tsp cinnamon, a dash of cloves and a dash of allspice to dry ingredients, add 1 cup shredded carrot and ½ cup diced pineapple, drained, to combined wet and dry
Coffee – add 2 tbsp instant coffee crystals and ½ tsp vanilla to wet ingredients
Cran-Orange – add ½ cup orange juice to wet ingredients, reduce milk to ¼ cup, add 1 cup fresh or dried cranberries to combined wet and dry
Zucchini – add 1 tsp cinnamon, a dash of cloves and a dash of allspice to dry ingredients, add 1 cup shredded zucchini to combined wet and dry

As much as my husband may ask I refuse to put chocolate chips in muffins. That’s just blatantly trying to make muffins into cupcakes. If I want a cupcake, I’ll make a cupcake. But, if you want you can put in ½ cup of chocolate chips. Just don’t tell hubby I said so.