Homemade Muffins, better than store bought

Cooking Discussions Baking, Sweets
1

After rants about pumpkin spice overwhelming my senses, my sister baked these muffins and changed my mind. They are moist, super easy to bake and the spice list totally worked. The recipe as wriiten makes six large muffins.

It got me thinking about muffin baking vs. store bought. With the weather cooling and summer fruit either preserved or flash frozen, I have quite a few muffin baking options. The recipe my sister found could be adapted using homemade apple sauce too…since my recent trips to the local orchard resulted in apple jam, butter and sauce.

Here’s the pumpkin muffin recipe:
6 jumbo

1 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter and flour a 6-cup jumbo muffin pan.
Into a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, salt, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, mace and cinnamon.
In another bowl beat together the eggs, oil, pumpkin puree and water. Add to the flour mixture and beat until the batter is combined. Divide batter into the prepared muffin cups.
Bake in center of preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Let the muffins cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Turn muffins out onto a rack and let them cool completely.

I prepared this in one large bowl without any issues. The recipe recommended raisins but I didnt go there😁. The ground mace is a game changer.

Do you have a muffin recipe to share? Sweet or savory but the kind you would want for breakfast or nibbling that work in either six large or 12 small muffin tins.

TIA, Rooster

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Some years ago, my recipe for a close-crumbed muffin was one of three finalists in a Chowhound contest. It’s still on their site. Just google “Healthy Hummingbird Muffins”. If you add cream cheese frosting, they can be cupcakes.

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This was very easy to find using Google. I’m posting the link, if you dont mind, in order to ref. it easily later and because it calls for buttermilk, another HO thread discussion.

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4

I rarely bother buying muffins, even at fancy bakeries, i’d just rather get a proper treat like a cookie (which is probably similar nutritional value as the muffins )
I make muffins for my dad as often as i can, his favorite is the original all bran muffin- except i swap in whole milk, and add both raisins and walnuts. He adds either butter or peanut butter when having one.

And there’s a corn muffin recupe with blueberries in this little book of all muffin recipes that my mom has, basically a sweeter “northern” style cornbread with blueberries

I like smaller muffins better, large ones seem to be almost tough or overcooked on the edges and bottom by the time the center has cooked through. I don’t bake much for myself (my oven is a piece of crapola and baked goods aren’t very forgiving) but i use my muffin pans a lot for everything from baked oatmeal to meatless loaf

5

I love muffins, but don’t eat them very often anymore because of the calories. I haven’t tried making muffins at home since I was a teen.

I’ve tried a few times to make those infamous Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins (was this just a Boston/New England thing?), when a recipe comes floating by claiming to be the real deal, but none have ever tasted as good as those from the store. I’ve given up trying.

6

I enjoy a good bran muffin with warmed butter. Its been years since I had a homemade one. I bet tahini drizzled on one out of the oven would be delicious.

The six large muffin tin I used didnt ruin the recipe. They turned out moist with a tight crumb. Half a muffin is plenty if Um eating other things or a muffin top😉 save the bottom for later.

Thxs for the link.

7

Im not familiar with a famous muffin but blueberry take a special touch. If the berries sink or are too wet, too large its a lousy one. Still trying to find the best version.

My baking will only improve with practice…so I continue to try.

8

Here’s my favorite blueberry muffin recipe. It involves making a jam out of some of the fresh blueberries and swirling that into the mix once they are in the pan. You can make that a day ahead if you want. It also goes over the top with the lemon/sugar topping. I think they are perfect, and my family raves about them every time I bake them. I think I got the recipe from Cooks Illustrated.

Why this recipe works:

We didn’t want the fruit in our blueberry muffin recipe to have the lackluster, watery taste so common in many other recipes. Cooking some of the berries in sugar and adding our cooled homemade jam to the batter along with fresh, uncooked berries gave our muffin recipe the best of both worlds: intense blueberry flavor and the liquid burst that only fresh berries can provide.

I make a little more blueberry jam, and put in a heaping teaspoon into each muffin.

Make ahead: Make the blueberry jam, and refrigerate it. Warm it in the microwave the morning you bake it. Mix togther the dry ingredients and store in ziploc baggie.

Makes 12 muffins

If buttermilk is unavailable, substitute 3/4 cup plain whole-milk or low-fat yogurt thinned with 1/4 cup milk.

  • Lemon-Sugar Topping

  • 1/3 cup sugar (2 1/3 ounces)

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated zest from 1 lemon

  • Muffins

  • 3 cups fresh blueberries (about 15 ounces), picked over (1 cup for muffins, the rest for jam)

  • 1 1/8 cups sugar (8 ounces) plus 2 teaspoons

  • 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)

  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

  • 1 teaspoon table salt

  • 2 large eggs

  • 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil

  • 1 cup buttermilk

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. FOR THE TOPPING: Stir together sugar and lemon zest in small bowl until combined; set aside.

2. FOR THE MUFFINS: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. (( set the oven rack in the second from the top. Also, use a pan because some of the blueberries spilled over onto the floor of the oven.)

Butter standard muffin tin .

Bring 2 cups blueberries and 2 teaspoons sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to 1/2 cup, about 8 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl.

Whisk remaining 8 oz. (1 1/8 cups) sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous, about 45 seconds.

Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined.

Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined.

Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened. (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not overmix.)

Following photos below, use ice cream scoop or large spoon to divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). (I used my large scoop. Each tin takes 2 scoops…one exactly full, and the other with overage. That should use up the batter.)

Spoon teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound of batter. Using chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion. Try to push it below the surface.

Sprinkle lemon sugar evenly over muffins.

Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes, (17 minutes wasn’t enough time, try 19 minutes next time) rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

Making Muffins with Blueberry Flavor Through and Through

1. MAKE BERRY JAM Cook half of fresh blueberries into thick jam to concentrate their flavor and eliminate excess moisture.

2. ADD FRESH BERRIES Stir 1 cup of fresh blueberries into batter to provide juicy bursts in every bite.

3. PORTION BATTER Scoop batter into muffin pans, completely filling cups.

4. ADD JAM TO BATTER Place 1 teaspoon of cooled berry jam in center of each batter-filled cup, pushing it below surface.

5. SWIRL INTO BATTER Using chopstick or skewer, swirl jam to spread berry flavor throughout.

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9

Boy, you really answered that dilemma for me, thank you! What a clever tip with the fruit. I will add this recipe to my bucket list!

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I can’t take credit for it, but boy, it works! And you could really use it for any fruit muffin. That’s the beauty of the technique. Even using an store bought unsweetened fruit jam or jelly would work, thinned with a little water or juice.

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I’ll have to try that recipe - I love blueberry muffins.

My “secret” now to blueberry muffins is that I will ONLY use either fresh wild blueberries (the really small ones) or frozen Wyman wild Maine blueberries. Since fresh are harder to come by (though my parents are in Maine and I’m in MA now, so its easier in season) I usually use the frozen berries.

I’ve found that nothing I try with grocery store blueberries (big fat types) seems to give me the flavor I want in a good muffin. I’ll have to try the jam trick sometime though.

For discussion - I use the King Arthur recipe, it works for me.
1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh preferred
1/4 cup sugar, for topping

baked at 375 for about 30 minutes, makes 12 standard (smallish) muffins

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/famous-department-store-blueberry-muffins-recipe

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Apprecitae it, including having two recipes as a comparison. Right on, on blueberry produce. I traveled to south NJ to get my hands on smaller bursting with flavor blueberries. The grocer type where fine eating out of hand or in fruit salads but for muffins the small ones had better flavor.

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I stockpile the wild frozen blueberries from trader joe’s, my favorite smoothie combo uses a lot of blueberries and you can really get the flavor from those

14

Made a batch for my son. His oven works pretty well for an apartment. I didnt use add in or a topping. I made six muffins not 12 but he enjoys citrus and would never bother making homemade muffins for himself. Maybe he will now…

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I make a lot of quick muffins with hopes that my now picky kid will eat. They are healthier than not so that could be part of the reason why she doesn’t devour them… I try to keep the sugar out or low and limited butter/oil. Usually, I will sub applesauce for oil without any issues.

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Thxs for the link. I started baking in tetirement to have better control over whats in the recipe.

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Yes, that’s my objective too. I don’t want us eating a lot of garbage if I can avoid it. I throw bananas that are getting overripe into the freezer and then can make a batch of muffins or bread.

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Before I leave MA for the garden state Im going to make one more muffin recipe for my son. These looked like a nice and easy variation and my kid has a thing for nuts. His cupboard is filled with all sorts of TJ nut bags.

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Let me know how they turn out. I’m a lover of poppyseed and lemon. But I like it to be really lemony! Really lemony!

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Me too. I usually add more juice and zest in recipes but since this was my first time using the recipe and it was for my son to enjoy I followed the recipe as written. No complaints from my son and as a nut lover he said the slivered almond topping was really good. He didnt have poppyseeds on hand so I bought a small container and brought it home w me. Usung up a container of yogurt he had was where this muffin began.

Next time I will chop almond finer and dbl the lemon req for my own preferences.