Recipe: Anytime Muffins
Best. Muffin. Recipe. Evar.
I stole the base recipe from The Best Make-Ahead Recipe by the editors of Cook's Illustrated (ISBN 978-1-933615-14-1). I've tweaked it a little, because I'm me.
Anytime Muffins
3cupsunbleached all-purpose flour (15 oz)1tbspbaking powder1/2tspbaking soda1/2tspsalt10tbspbutter, softened (1 1/4 sticks)1cupsugar (7 oz)2largeeggs1/2tspvanilla extract1 1/2cupsplain whole milk yogurt
Chocolate-Cherry
Fold 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips and 1 1/4 cup chopped dried cherries to the finished batter. I wonder if replacing the vanilla with a splash of Kirsch would help pop the cherry flavor?
Apple Cranberry Spice
Add 1 tsp each cinnamon and allspice to the flour mixture. Fold one (6 oz) bag of Welch's dried cranberries and cinnamon apples into the finished batter (break up the large clumps o' apple before stirring 'em in).
Apricot Almond
Replace vanilla with almond extract; fold 1 cup diced dried apricots into the finished batter.
Lemon Poppyseed
Add 2 1/2 tablespoons of poppyseeds and the zest from one huge or two medium lemons to the flour mixture.
Cranberry Orange
Add the zest from one orange to the flour mixture, and fold in 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh (or thawed frozen) cranberries into the finished batter.
Blueberry
Toss 2 cups fresh blueberries with 1 tbsp flour, and fold into the finished batter. Apparently if you use frozen berries, they should be thawed, rinsed, dried, and you can skip the flour thing.
Banana Pecan
Replace sugar with 1 cup packed light brown sugar. Add 1/2 tsp nutmeg to the flour mixture. Stir 1 1/2 cups finely diced bananas and 3/4 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans into the finished batter.
I'm working on developing a few more variants as well.
Let me just re-emphasize the beauty of this recipe... These muffins can be baked immediately, or left in the fridge overnight and baked in the morning. Fresh, hot muffins when you step out of the shower. But the brilliant part is that they can be frozen, and can go straight from the freezer to the oven. Imagine... a few batches thrown into the freezer, and then I can just pull a few out to bake at a time -- say, as the boys are getting ready for school and work. A couple of lemon-poppyseed for khryseos, a couple of chocolate-cherry for the BPL, and an apricot-almond for myself (they're great with tea)... they bake just fine in a half-empty (or 3/4 empty) tin.
I stole the base recipe from The Best Make-Ahead Recipe by the editors of Cook's Illustrated (ISBN 978-1-933615-14-1). I've tweaked it a little, because I'm me.
Anytime Muffins
3cupsunbleached all-purpose flour (15 oz)1tbspbaking powder1/2tspbaking soda1/2tspsalt10tbspbutter, softened (1 1/4 sticks)1cupsugar (7 oz)2largeeggs1/2tspvanilla extract1 1/2cupsplain whole milk yogurt
- Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper baking cups; set aside. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; set aside.
- Using an electric mixer at mediunm speed, cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.
- Reducing the mixer speed to low, add half the flour mixture, and mix. Add 1/2 cup of yogurt, mix, and scrape the bowl. Add half the remaining flour, mix, 1/2 cup of yogurt, mix and scrape the bowl. And do the same with the rest of the flour and the remaining 1/2 cup of yogurt. Portion the batter evenly into the muffin tin (it looks like a lot of batter -- the cups will be very full).
- OPTIONAL STEP: STORAGE. You can spray cooking oil on plastic wrap, cover the muffin tin, and throw 'em in the fridge overnight. Or freeze 'em, and when the batter balls are frozen solid, transfer them to a freezer bag.
- BAKING. Heat the oven to 375°F and adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position. Bake the muffins until golden brown: 25 to 30m minutes if room-temp or refrigerated, 35-40 minutes if frozen. Let the muffins cool 5 minutes before serving.
Chocolate-Cherry
Fold 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips and 1 1/4 cup chopped dried cherries to the finished batter. I wonder if replacing the vanilla with a splash of Kirsch would help pop the cherry flavor?
Apple Cranberry Spice
Add 1 tsp each cinnamon and allspice to the flour mixture. Fold one (6 oz) bag of Welch's dried cranberries and cinnamon apples into the finished batter (break up the large clumps o' apple before stirring 'em in).
Apricot Almond
Replace vanilla with almond extract; fold 1 cup diced dried apricots into the finished batter.
Lemon Poppyseed
Add 2 1/2 tablespoons of poppyseeds and the zest from one huge or two medium lemons to the flour mixture.
Cranberry Orange
Add the zest from one orange to the flour mixture, and fold in 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh (or thawed frozen) cranberries into the finished batter.
Blueberry
Toss 2 cups fresh blueberries with 1 tbsp flour, and fold into the finished batter. Apparently if you use frozen berries, they should be thawed, rinsed, dried, and you can skip the flour thing.
Banana Pecan
Replace sugar with 1 cup packed light brown sugar. Add 1/2 tsp nutmeg to the flour mixture. Stir 1 1/2 cups finely diced bananas and 3/4 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans into the finished batter.
I'm working on developing a few more variants as well.
Let me just re-emphasize the beauty of this recipe... These muffins can be baked immediately, or left in the fridge overnight and baked in the morning. Fresh, hot muffins when you step out of the shower. But the brilliant part is that they can be frozen, and can go straight from the freezer to the oven. Imagine... a few batches thrown into the freezer, and then I can just pull a few out to bake at a time -- say, as the boys are getting ready for school and work. A couple of lemon-poppyseed for khryseos, a couple of chocolate-cherry for the BPL, and an apricot-almond for myself (they're great with tea)... they bake just fine in a half-empty (or 3/4 empty) tin.