“Many, many years ago when I was twenty-three….” I found instructions on how to create your own muffin recipe with whatever ingredients you have on hand. I carefully wrote it down in a notebook, thought about it lots of times, never used it, then lost it. This evening when I was cleaning my closet I found it. Seriously, this is old stuff. There’s a page in this notebook with “Judah Keith Voth” doodled over and over. And next to it “Lydia Malin Voth” and “Natalie Joanne Voth.” (We didn’t come up with Wesley’s male name until about 24 hours after he was born. Ha!)
Anyway… Maybe no one else cares about this kind of stuff, but I love the idea of having a skeleton of a recipe that I can adapt however I want. So I’m going to put it right here. And you can use it if you want.
ps – Kudos to you if you know the song I was quoting in the beginning sentence. I hope you sing it all day long.
Create A Breakfast Muffin
Directions:
Combine dry ingredients, then mix in wet ingredients until just combined; the batter should be lumpy. Grease muffin tins and fill cups 2/3 full. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes (give or take 5 minutes) -Makes 12 muffins
The following ingredients are required:
Grain
Use 2 – 2.5 cups white flour. Or substitute oatmeal, cornmeal, whole wheat flour, rye flour or flake cereal for 1 cup of the white flour. Or substitute 1 cup leftover cooked oatmeal, rice or cornmeal for 1/2 cup of the white flour and decrease liquid to 1/2 cup.
Milk
Use 1 cup milk. Or substitute buttermilk or sour milk (1 T. vinegar & 1 c. milk.) Or substitute fruit juice for part or all of the milk.
Fat
Use 4 T. butter or 1/4 cup vegetable oil. (1/4 cup = 4 T. Did you know?) Or substitute regular or crunchy peanut butter for part or all of the fat. The fat can be reduced or omitted with fair results if using “wet addition.” (I often substitute applesauce or pumpkin puree for the oil in batter bread recipes.)
Egg
Use 1 egg. If using a cooked grain, separate egg, add yolk to batter; beat white til stiff and fold into the batter.
Sweetener
Use between 2 T. and 1/2 cup sugar. Or substitute up to 3/4 cup brown sugar. Or substitute up to 1/2 cup honey or molasses and decrease milk to 3/4 cup. (The 2 T. amount is for unsweetened muffins. Think cheese and garlic.)
Baking powder
Use 2 tsp. baking powder. If using whole or cooked grains or more than 1 cup of additions, increase to 3 tsp. If using buttermilk or sour milk, decrease to 1 tsp. and add 1/2 tsp baking soda.
Salt
Use 1/2 tsp. salt.
The following ingredients are optional. Additions can be used in any combination, up to 1.5 cups total. If using more than 1 cup wet additions, decrease milk to 1/2 cup.
Dry additions
nuts, sunflower seeds, raisins, coconut, etc.
Moist additions
blueberries, chopped apples, freshly shredded zucchini, shredded carrots, etc.
Wet additions
pumpkin puree, applesauce, mashed cooked sweet potato, mashed banana, mashed cooked carrot etc. If using 1/2 cup drained canned fruit or thawed shredded zucchini, substitute the syrup or zucchini liquid for all or part of the milk.
Spices
Use spices that complement the additions, such as 1 tsp. cinnamon with 1/4 tsp. nutmeg or cloves. Try 2 tsp. grated orange or lemon peel.
Jellies/jams
Fill cups half full with a plain batter. Add 1 tsp. jam or jelly and top with 2 more T. batter.
Topping
Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on the batter in the tins. Or make a streusel topping: 1/3 c. flour, 1/2 c. chopped nuts, 1/3 c. brown sugar, 2-3 T. melted butter, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, pinch of salt.
Nonsweet combinations
Use only 2 T. sugar and no fruit. Add combinations of the following: 1/2 cup shredded cheese, 3 strips fried and crumbled bacon, 2 T. grated onion, 1/2 cup shredded zucchini, 2 T. Parmesan cheese. Spices could include a teaspoon of parsley and a pinch of marjoram.
I did a double recipe for the shower, and used half margarine, half butter. If I was doing a single recipe, I’d use all butter – just because the only thing I like about margarine is the price.
