Quick, Easy, Yummy MUFFINS Today

Muffins are really like cupcakes, only not as sweet as cake and often served as a breakfast treat. We had muffins on special Sundays as a child, when mom was feeling really good or when she would let us bake them ourselves, from scratch. So it happens, like other childhood treats, muffins for grown ups become a comforting food that will raise your spirits about 20 notches, if you will let them.

You won’t need to spend much time baking muffins and they don’t take a lot of extra care. In fact, they’re best if you DON’T spend much time, barely mix them together, because if you beat them too much they’ll be tough and flat. Plus, you can make so many different kinds! You can think way beyond the usual blueberry, lemon poppy seed or bran types. And I will share with you a very, very quick and easy way to make muffins!

For me a muffin applied at the right time will take away most tears, at least for awhile.

But first, here’s some muffin facts:

The French word moufflet means soft and is applied to bread - so a muffin is a soft bread. An apt description.  They baked little soft breads in cups - before there ever was such a thing as a muffin pan.

The English used to bake muffins to serve them at afternoon tea time so they called them “tea cakes“. And of course, the English also make “English muffins” which are really little yeast raised flat breads cooked on a grill, not baked in the oven. Did you know, English muffins should really be called “Welsh muffins” since that’s where they originated way back in the 10^th and 11^th centuries. I’ve made my own English muffins, too, and they are scrumptious. But for now we are making the other kind of muffins, which are more like tea cakes and made with baking powder, not yeast.

In the U.S. where we like to make things official. four states have their own official muffins. Minnesota has adopted the blueberry muffin, Massachusetts in 1986 adopted the corn muffin, New York has the apple muffin since 1987, and Wisconsin has the cranberry muffin. If you’re interested, there are other U.S. state foods and Wikipedia has a list of them, sorted by state.

Recipes for muffins started to circulate in the 18^th century, but muffins had been around for a long time, first baked in cups and then probably iron mongers started making cake pans and molds for little cakes. Probably, bakeries picked up these pans and made special cakes for special people. I wonder who made the first little tea cake? How delighted they must have been. Maybe they were made for children's parties. 

Did you know baking powder wasn't developed until around 1857? Before that, people used “potash” which produces carbon dioxide gas when baked in a batter. Potash is obtained from plant ashes and was also used for making soap. Nowadays potash is still used in fertilizer, thought you needed to know that.

This is a super baking lesson for young children who are interested in learning to bake - fun and fast and yummy and easy to do.

Reading recipes is a great reading lesson too! I used to ask my kids to help by reading out the instructions to me while I cooked, or sometimes they would help each other cook and bake this way.

I always remind people to read my recipes ALL THE WAY THROUGH and assemble all the ingredients and equipment you will need ahead of time - this way you won’t find out you’re out of something half way through the process! AND you will actually know what you are doing.

I had a little coffee-shop café for awhile and I baked all my own pastries, cakes and bread. I got up early in the morning six days a week to bake. I loved doing this but I had to develop shortcuts so I could have everything done by the time I opened at 8:30 AM. One of these shortcuts was making my daily muffins using bulk cake mixes. You can do this too, easily, and shorten the time it takes to make your morning muffins. Here’s how.

Sweet Muffins Made With a Cake Mix!

You will need one or two muffin pans (I use the size that makes average size muffins or cupcakes, or you can use the extra large size or the tiny ones, but you’ll have to adjust the baking time. The side of the cake mix box may tell you how to make different sizes. Most cake mixes you buy will make about 24 muffins using my recipe.)

cupcake paper cup liners (optional)

An oven set to bake at 350° degrees. With the oven rack/shelf in the middle.

A bowl and a big spoon and a whisk.

3/4 cup Unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon Baking powder (I use the kind that has no aluminum, better for you)

2 or 3 large eggs (as per box instructions)

water, amount specified by cake mix (can substitute low-fat milk)

vegetable oil (probably 1/2 cup per box instructions)

Start with any brand of yellow cake mix (or use some other flavor if you want, like lemon or chocolate or butterscotch or spice or any kind of cake mix you like, but not angel food!)

Pour the cake mix into the big bowl.

Add ¾ Cup of all-purpose unbleached flour and a teaspoon of the baking powder to the mix and thoroughly mix it together using a whisk is best. (If you want spiced muffins, add your teaspoon of cinnamon, or ½ teaspoon of allspice, or ½ teaspoon of nutmeg or other spices now!)

Now mix together the eggs, water (or replace the water with low-fat milk), and the oil that the mix instructions call for.

(If you are making lemon, almond, vanilla, or other flavor muffins add your flavor extract - from ½ to 2 teaspoons of flavoring - to the water before you mix it in)

Add these ingredients all at once and then mix.

Mix it all together gently only until it is all damp, there will still be lumps and you may even see some dry mix. It only takes a few strokes of the spoon to do this.

At this point you can add some yummies with just a few quick stirs - don't over mix

Depending on the kind you want to make you can add:

Lemon or orange zest or very finely chopped lemon/orange peel - about a tablespoon

Raisins, any kind of chopped dry fruits, nuts, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, larger chunks of chocolate, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, pepitos (those green seeds), pieces of fresh fruits, ripe banana, blueberries, other berries. Grated carrots and crushed pineapple go together well with spice muffins. Make your own combinations using the things you have on hand. IMPORTANT don’t add more than ½ to ¾ cup total of the additions.

You can use paper cupcake baking cups in your pans, or just oil the pans. Less cleanup with the paper liners.

Spoon the mix into the muffin pans filling each only about 2/3 full because they will rise a lot.

Bake them in the 350° oven for 14 to 20 minutes - this will depend on what you added and how many you bake at once . I usually set the timer for 12 minutes and then check them, adding 3 minutes or so, checking again, and repeating until they are just lightly browned. They will be mounded up well above the edge of the pan.

Take them out and cool them for 10 minutes or so on a cooling rack - muffins are awfully nice served warm!

Eat with caution!

These are not low-sugar, low anything muffins - so be warned that they may have a lot of calories! They are meant to be served as a special treat, along with scrambled eggs and juice, or other favorite things, and not an everyday substitute for a real breakfast!

Oh, a couple other hints here. The best muffins, in my opinion, are simple and not too complicated. I only add one or two kinds of dry fruit, for instance, to a lemon cake mix base. Or I make chocolate cake mix base muffins and just add some roasted walnut pieces. Or I make vanilla muffins with small chunks of ripe bananas. Or I make almond poppy seed muffins. If you add too much stuff they might not bake up very well, might be doughy in the middle, and just won’t be as delicious. Too much fresh fruit can make muffins soggy. You can also substitute fruit juice for the water called for on the mix box.

I don’t put frosting on my muffins, but I know some people do - I think that is too much sweetness. Each to their own!

Please let me know what specialty muffin you come up with and how they turn out, will you?