Thursday, April 20, 2023

muffin recipe

 

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3.4

(108)

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A plate of basic muffins being served with butter and jam.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Micah Marie Morton

  • Active Time

    10 minutes

  • Total Time

    30 minutes

This basic muffin recipe has a neat trick: Instead of giving you instructions for making just one kind of muffin, it acts as a base recipe for making pretty much any kind of muffin you can imagine. We have a few variations here (including bacon muffins!) to get you started, but they’re illustrative of the many other things you can try. You can use the raisin variation, for instance, to make chocolate chip muffins or the fresh blueberry muffin instructions to make a cranberry version. If you want to get even more creative, you can even make chocolate muffins, or a double chocolate version, by adding a bit of vanilla extract and cocoa to the muffin batter before you mix in your chips. (While the recipe calls for buttering the muffin tins, you can opt to use silicone or paper liners instead to dress them up.)

However you flavor them, these quick bread–adjacent treats are delicious. They’re a bit heartier than the tender cupcake-style muffins you usually find in coffee shops these days. These have a dense, moist crumb, and the muffin tops are rounded and pebbly rather than puffy. They’re also really quick and simple to make—particularly since the ingredients are only lightly mixed—so you can easily throw them together for breakfast or brunch and serve with butter and jam or a swipe of cream cheese. If you make them ahead, store at room temperature in an airtight container.

This recipe was excerpted from ‘The Fannie Farmer Cookbook’ by Marion Cunningham. Buy the full book on Amazon.

Ingredients

Makes 12 muffins

2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. kosher salt
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 cup (8 oz) whole milk, room temperature
¼ cup (½ stick) butter, melted

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter muffin pans. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the egg, milk, and butter, stirring only enough to dampen the dry ingredients; the batter should not be smooth. Spoon into the muffin cups, filling each one about two-thirds full. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes each.

    VARIATIONS:

    Blueberry Muffins: Increase sugar to ½ cup. Reserve ¼ cup of the flour and toss with 1 cup blueberries; stir them into the batter last.

    Pecan Muffins: Increase sugar to ¼ cup. Add ½ cup chopped toasted pecans to the batter. After filling the cups, sprinkle with more granulated sugar or brown sugar, cinnamon, and more chopped nuts.

    Whole-Wheat Muffins: Decrease all-purpose flour to 1 cup and add ¾ cup whole-wheat flour.

    Date or Raisin Muffins: Add ½ cup chopped pitted dates or ⅓ cup raisins to the batter.

    Bacon Muffins: Add 3 strips bacon, fried crisp and crumbled, to the batter.

    Mini Muffins: Swap standard muffin tin for mini muffin tin and bake at 375°F for 10–13 minutes. (Makes about 36 mini muffins.) 

    Editor’s note: This recipe first appeared on Epicurious in August 2004. Head this way for more of our favorite breakfast recipes →

Cover of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook 1996 edition.
Excerpted by permission of Knopf from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of America's Great Classic Cookbook, copyright © 1996 by Marion Cunningham. All rights reserved. Buy the full book from Amazon or Bookshop.
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Reviews (108)

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  • I love this recipe! It's an old fashioned muffin, not very sweet. My kids like it and I've made it several times. If you're looking for a sweet, cupcake-like muffin, this is NOT it.

    • Mrs. Dash

    • Northampton MA

    • 1/15/2023

  • Some people are being overly harsh with their reviews. This is, like the title says, a basic muffin recipe, not an overly sweet, pastry-like muffin of the current western world. I found them to be a bit dense and to be honest, they do taste more like a scone or a biscuit, but they are still delicious! They would be great served warm with some butter or jam, or both. I will definitely make them again.

    • Erin

    • Montreal, QC

    • 12/9/2022

  • Bad :)

    • Anonymous

    • 11/1/2022

  • THESE WERE DISGUSTING!!! I WOULDNT FEED THIS TO MY 10TH EX HUSBAND!!! AND I HATE HIM WITH MY SOUL!! I WOULD RATHER GO TO JAIL THEN EAT THESE EVER AGAIN!! I WAS AT THE FISH MARKET WHEN I TOOK A BITE OF ONE OF THESE AND I PASSED OUT ON THE DRAD FISHIES!!

    • Linda Sou

    • THE FISH MARKET

    • 10/30/2022

  • THIS IS THE WORST THING ON GODS GREEN EARTH. I HAD TO WRITE MY OWN I SURVIVED BOOK ABOUT THESE “MUFFINS”. IF YOU WANT YOUR TASTE BUDS INTACT DO NOT EAT THESE.

    • SOMEONE WHO ALMOST DIED

    • THE GRAVE

    • 10/30/2022

  • yucky not yummy REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

    • JOE BALL

    • ur mom

    • 10/24/2022

  • By far the driest blandest worst things I have ever made. I am embarrassed by this trash. Whoever taught the author how to cook, needs to be beaten.

    • Hate this

    • Miami

    • 9/5/2022

  • These muffins are delicious, especially hot out of the oven. The only tweaks I made were to add pumpkin spice and cinnamon. They came out nice and golden. The key is to not over mix and you will be fine. I will definitely be making these again.

    • Anonymous

    • Warsaw, Poland

    • 8/16/2022

  • For all the people who gave this a low rating: this recipe is a traditional muffin recipe and is absolutely correct! These are true muffins, not the overly-sweet cupcake-type things people call muffins today. They are meant to be served warm from the oven with some butter and perhaps jam. Try it!

    • Baker1962

    • Alberta, Canada

    • 6/11/2022

  • I think Epicurious meant " Biscuits" or scones.. While this muffin is really bad but it taste good with my homemade gravy.. That crumbly " Muffin" texture goes super good with sauces and Gravy... but as muffins Naww I dont think its the creator's mistake most likely Epicurious swapped the titles or something

    • Anonymous

    • Malaysia

    • 5/14/2022

  • Nice easy n simple recipes very smart

    • Anonymous

    • Fiji Islands

    • 1/6/2022

  • This is my go to recipe for basic muffins. My kids and I really like it. This isnt a cake-like muffin like sold in stores. I use this to make make breakfast muffins and add butter and honey to it at the end. I only change a couple of things. I use 2oz of applesauce to substitute the egg (I don't even add the sugar) and I only use 1 tsp of baking powder. I mix all the wet ingredients together and slowly add them, in case there feels like too much water. You don't want the mix runny but just right. Thanks for sharing!

    • Julie

    • USA

    • 12/1/2021

  • I think this is an okay base recipe, but here’s what I did to produce a richer flavor. I used buttermilk in place of milk, 1/2 cup of melted butter added in last, 1/4 cup sugar, two teaspoons of vanilla, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 applesauce for moistness. This is what I did, and the flavor was improved.

    • Vanessa

    • Queens, NY

    • 11/16/2021

  • I have discovered something in previous attempts at making these add the milk before the butter. Add your butter last or the sugar and flour will soak it up leaving a dry mess. Do not just throw everything in one bowl without having an order to it.

    • I-Like-Food

    • dallas

    • 2/5/2021

  • I have made the pecan version multiple times. They are amazing! I have started adding unsweetened shredded coconut and it is sooooo good. Definitely try adding some coconut.

    • I-Like-Food

    • Texas

    • 2/3/2021

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Food Innovation Group

  • 23 Muffin Recipes Worth Waking Up For

    Our virtual bakery case is right this way.
    • Posted by at No comments:

    Friday, April 14, 2023

    Oatmeal

     


    Children forced to eat oatmeal

    tend to see things as surreal.

    Children who are given kale

    never go beyond small scale.

    Deprived of sugar, children grow

    morose and wind up on skid row.

    Child abuse, it seems to me

    is making kids eat too healthy.

    Posted by at No comments:

    Thursday, April 13, 2023

    Leaks and other stuff

     



    All you hear about are leaks.

    They're the only news for weeks.

    The Pentagon or some big wheel

    loses documents piecemeal.

    Then the docs go viral and

    wind up on the old newsstand.

    How about instead we read

    how to live on chicken feed?

    Posted by at No comments:

    Tuesday, April 4, 2023

    Prose Poem: The Frugalman. (Dedicated to Lauren Weber of the Wall Street Journal)

     



    They call me the Frugalman.  And I'll be mighty happy to tell you why.  Pleased as punch.  Pickled tink, in fact!  See, I started out life as a luftmensch, then progressed to a schlemiel, then finally hit upon the idea of resizing myself like a tailor would with an old coat, to become the world-renowned Frugalman.  My motto became:  ANYTHING TO SAVE A BUCK.  I had it tattooed on my forehead.  To save the expense of printing up business cards.  At first not many people were interested in my new personal brand.  But all that changed when I bought an old apartment building and began tearing it down to get at the used razor blades.  See, years ago, when they first introduced safety razors, the disposable stainless steel blades became a safety hazard.  If you threw them in the trash they'd fall out and slit open a wrist or slice off a nose.  So it became standard procedure to build into the back of medicine chests in bathrooms a slit for the safety blades.  Once done with a blade, the man just slid it into the slot and forgot about it. Like mailing a letter. The blade fell harmlessly into the space between the lathe plaster walls.  And there was enough space between the walls to hold tens of thousands of used razor blades.  Where they sat gathering dust, doing nobody any good.  Until I, the Frugalman, got the bright idea to buy old apartment buildings to tear down.  To get at the blades and sell them.  Those old blades made by Gillette and Wilkinson Sword were made of the highest grade metals.  They're worth a bundle now.  Worth tearing down a decrepit building to get at.  Plus, I'll never have to pay for my own razor blades again.  Boy, the publicity I got from that stunt was tremendous!  Of course it was mostly about the poor dispossessed tenants I had to throw out.  But hey, today you won't find anyone else out there who claims to be the Frugalman.  Mostly because it's too dangerous.  I have to live in my car.  Maybe I'd better take the "Frugalman" sign off the side of it . . .

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    Sunday, April 2, 2023

    Confessions of a Birthday Party Clown.

     


    Memories of a birthday party clown



    I’ve been writing limericks all morning, just to get that tawdry itch out of my system. Now i’m ready to tackle something more serious – my memories of doing  birthday parties as a clown. What i remember is a mixture of the mundane and miraculous. 


    I came home to minneapolis the winter of 1973/74 a physical wreck from my time spent in mexico studying pantomime with sigfrido aguilar.  I had caught some kind of bug that disrupted my innards to the point where each meal was a prelude to an agonized and extended stay in the banyo.  I recuperated at my parent’s house, gradually regaining control over my bowels. Once i was up and running again I planned to rejoin sigfrido’s mime troop on their world tour. But one vibrant spring day, as the robins pulled fat earthworms from the sodden green grass and the sparkling blue sky was swept by wisps of blinding white clouds, i idly opened the ensign magazine and was immediately galvanized by an article by President Spencer W. Kimbal – “Every Young Man a Missionary.”  his ringling declaration of the duty of every young man in the church to serve a mission hit me like a two-by-four on the side of the head. I knew i had to get ready to go on a mission, not cavort around the globe with sigfrido’s merry andrews. 

    But where was the money to go on a two year mission to come from? I had about a hundred bucks in the bank and was living on the cuff with the folks. When i reported to my branch president Lewis Church my willingness to serve, he gave me the financial facts of life – i had to have five thousand dollars salted away in the bank to qualify for a mission call. Provided i met all the other requirements as well.

    Jobs were as scarce as irish rabbis back then. When i reported my lack of gainful employment to president church he said “Tim, why don’t you work as a birthday party clown?”

    “Huh?” I replied brilliantly.

    Quick as a wink president church outlined a poster on a sheet of white copy paper with a magic marker that extolled my virtues as a children’s entertainer, including my phone number at the bottom. Disregarding church policy about making copies for private purposes, he used the library copier to run me off a hundred birthday clown posters to put up all around town. Which i immediately began doing.

    Up in prospect park i taped a poster to a pole outside a big ornate victorian house and was invited inside by its owner – the young widow of John Berryman the poet. She hired me to perform at her 8 year old daughter’s party. I don’t remember her name, but i bless that widow’s memory because she invited a friend of hers to the party.  A reporter for the minneapolis star newspaper. The reporter interviewed me extensively, brought a photographer along, and even agreed to print my phone number in her story. It ran on a saturday and my parent’s phone began ringing like mad.

    Hurray!  Suddenly i had all the birthday party work i could handle.  i even spent a week at paul bunyan land up in brainerd.

    But alas, since i didn’t drive or own a car, i hit on what i considered a brilliant business gambit. I told prospective clients that my car was in the garage and if they would come pick me up and bring me home i would give them a fifty percent discount. And since i only charged twenty dollars per party (and a party could go on for hours and hours) i was only averaging about ten bucks a day. It would take a long time to build my bank account up to five thousand smackeroos that way.

    But then another miracle happened. My old circus pal steve smith, with whom i had studied pantomime down in mexico, called me up with good news. He had negotiated a deal with the ringling circus owner, irvin feld, to do the advance clowning for the show – traveling ahead of the show to perform at schools, hospitals, libraries, and be on radio, tv, and interviewed by reporters for newspapers. Good old Smith immediately thought of me, he told me, after he signed the deal, and asked old man Feld if he wanted an advance clown team. Feld said sure, so smith selflessly created the immortal clown team of T.J. Tatters and Dusty. (My official ringling clown name was dusty.) 

    My salary from that job was enough to fill my coffers down at the farmers and mechanics savings bank in minneapolis with the requisite five thousand.

    But all that ensued as advance clown is a tale for another day. I want to back up to the nuts and bolts of being a birthday party clown. Or at least what i can dredge up from a faltering memory that sputters and goes out like a campfire in a simoom.  

    I did balloon animals. Without a balloon pump. I blew those suckers up one at a time and tied them into dogs, giraffes, and swords for the ravenous little nippers until my fingers grew as stiff and brittle as spaghetti pasta. I quickly learned that kids, when given a fragile balloon sculpture, do not cherish it but stomp on it and bite it until it pops, and then come crying back to me demanding another one. And another one. And another one. 

    The birthday party clown has to eat a large piece of birthday cake or the birthday child feels slighted. You might think that would be pleasant. And the first dozen times it is – but after that the cloying sweetness got to me and i managed to make my piece of cake ‘disappear’ by covering it with a napkin and then smashing it with the flat of my hand. Hey, i was a clown – i could get away with anything.

    I could juggle. Just barely. When i dropped one of my expensive solid rubber lacrosse balls (what all professional jugglers use) i had to scramble like lightning to get it back before one of the kids would grab it and run away with it like a jack rabbit. Children firmly believe that anything a clown drops is a party favor and now belongs to them.

    I played my musical saw, getting the kids to sing ‘happy birthday to you.’ the adults at the party were fascinated by my saw and requested many an encore, but the kids couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. After one or two songs they’d begin to wander away, looting the kitchen and pouring koolaid on the persian carpets.

    I tried doing magic but there is always one child who feels compelled to yell at the top of their lungs ‘it’s a fake!’ so i’d go back to making more balloon animals.

    I had a routine with a golf club and marshmallows which usually went over well. But once the kids got ahold of something as sticky and malleable as a marshmallow they’d start a shooting war with each other. The marshmallows wound up on the drapes and stuck to the ceiling.

    All in all, i’d have to say that being a birthday party clown was good training for future parenthood – it showed me plainly how capricious and treacherous children could be. The lovable side of a child rarely appears during the selfish gluttony of their own birthday party. 

    I still get offers to do birthday parties from time to time today. I always reply with a bland yet predatory smile that i would be glad to make a brief appearance at the child’s party. For the paltry sum of five hundred dollars. So far, thank heavens, i’ve had no takers. 







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    Sunday, March 26, 2023

    Prose Poem: The Light at the Start of the Tunnel. (Dedicated to William Wan.)

     


    My doctor tells me to avoid reading newspapers.  He recommends instead I listen to soothing classical music by Brahms, close my eyes, and imagine the news I'd like to read about in the newspaper.  Like the end of the Ukraine invasion by Russia.  North Korea overthrowing their dictators and becoming a democracy.  Abundant rain in the Sub Sahara leading to amazing crop harvests that feed everyone and leave enough to export for huge profits.  A federal government program that features handouts of free cotton candy.  So far it's worked pretty well.  My mental health has improved markedly.  There are no longer voices in my head telling me that sugar is poison or that Donald Trump is another Caligula.  I can smile again.  Meet people and shake their hand with a smile and twinkle in my eye.  Even use my pressure cooker to make beef stew again -- for the first time since 1995.  But I have to confess I miss the feel of newsprint crackling in my fingers as I turn the pages from wars to disasters to Dilbert.  Carrying a newspaper on the bus, reading it on a park bench, rolling it up to beat my dog when it soils the carpet  -- these are all tactile pleasures I need to replace.  So I put rubber bands around my wrist.  And snap them whenever I want to buy a copy of the Washington Post.  My wrist is black and blue.  And I might be developing gangrene -- there's a dark blue line running up my arm that throbs with heat.  But at least I'm not obsessing about global warming or living in dread of Alec Baldwin.  Only thing I still have trouble with is lying.  I don't have a dog.  Don't beat it with a newspaper or anything else.  In fact I don't have a carpet for it to pee on.  No house.  No job.  I'm homeless, actually.  And don't have a doctor.  I'm making all this up while sleeping under a layer of newspapers on a park bench.  Have you got a quarter?

    Posted by at No comments:
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