I was planning to write about icebox cakes today, but as I sat down outside with my tea to start writing, I couldn’t summon the words. The temperature dropped overnight and there’s a gentle but firm breeze; the sky is overcast and the humidity has abated for now—it feels strangely like fall, or rather, like that brief string of days that teeter between summer and fall, when it’s warm enough for shorts but there’s a definite crispness to the air, as if the promise of sharpened pencils and new notebooks and apple cider and woodsmoke and flannel shirts and Halloween candy is hiding just around the bend.
The reprieve from the heat is fleeting, I know, and by Sunday we’ll be back to hot, sunny weather in the high 80s. We’ll talk about icebox cakes then, I promise!
But for now, as I sit here editing apple recipes for the fall issue of Vermont magazine (such is the funny, time-twisted lifecycle of print media!), let’s talk about something that works for all seasons: muffins.
Okay, before we begin, let’s get this out of the way first—muffins are often just cake masquerading as breakfast. But that sort of muffin—the very sweet, very oversized bakery sort—is not what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about the kind that’s just sweet enough. A tender yet sturdy crumb with a high-rising, domed top, the surface of which has that excellent moist stickiness to it, which breaks off satisfyingly in big pieces.
Muffins should be slightly sugary but not so much that it disguises or overshadows the flavor you’ve chosen—fruit, perhaps, or oats or spice.
You can find great recipes for specific muffins, like these famous blueberry ones or these turmeric ones, but it’s also useful to learn a good basic blank canvas recipe that you can adapt for various ingredients all year long.
What follows is my go-to recipe for a basic muffin, along with some useful tips I’ve learned through trial and error (and many a disappointing batch of muffins!) as well as some inspiration for flavor variations.
Recipe Notes:
-You can use milk or buttermilk here; I usually use milk, but if you’re making a plain muffin or one with berries, buttermilk is nice.
-I love adding a splash of almond extract if I’m not adding other spices—it’s not an especially noticeable flavor but it does add a little bit of nuance which I find makes the muffins taste just…better.
-For high-rising, domed muffins, watch the heat! You want to preheat the oven to 425 degrees F, and once you put the muffins in, don’t open the door to check on them. You need to keep that heat in there!
-Check your baking powder for freshness. Baking powder is the second key to getting nicely domed muffins, and there’s a full tablespoon in this recipe. If you’re not sure whether yours is still fresh, add 1/4 teaspoon of it to 1/2 cup of hot tap water and see if it fizzes. If it doesn’t, you need new baking powder.
-Berry Muffins: Add 1 1/2 cups of fresh berries to the batter along with the dry ingredients. You can use frozen berries, but they’ll often stain the batter (no big deal) and it’s helpful to rinse your frozen berries first (a trick I learned from the very wise PJ Hamel at King Arthur).
-Fruit Muffins: Add 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh fruit to the batter along with the dry ingredients—you can peel or not peel the fruit, it’s up to you. Apples, pears, peaches, plums, and apricots are all excellent ideas here. Add some spice too if you want (cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, and so on).
-Oatmeal Muffins: Swap the 2 cups of flour for 1 cup of rolled oats and 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour, and use brown sugar instead of granulated sugar.
-Ginger Muffins: Add 1 teaspoon ground ginger and 1/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger to the dry ingredients.
-Raw Sugar Cardamom Muffins: Use whole wheat flour in place of the all-purpose, use brown sugar in place of the granulated sugar, add 2 teaspoons cardamom to the dry ingredients, and sprinkle the tops generously with raw sugar before baking.
-Chocolate Chunk Muffins: Add 1 cup chopped dark chocolate to the dry ingredients.
-Banana Walnut Muffins: Add 2 mashed bananas to the wet ingredients, skip the butter, and reduce the milk to 3/4 cup. Add 1/2 cup toasted chopped walnuts to the dry ingredients.
-S’More Muffins: Swap the 2 cups of flour for 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs and 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour. Add 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chopped semisweet chocolate and 1 cup mini marshmallows to the dry ingredients.
-Espresso Muffins: Add 2 tablespoons ground coffee to the dry ingredients and use brown sugar instead of granulated sugar.
-Cranberry Orange Yogurt Muffins: Rub 1 tablespoon orange zest into the sugar before adding it. Add 1 cup dried cranberries to the dry ingredients and swap 1/4 cup yogurt for the butter.
Basic Muffins
Adapted from King Arthur Flour; makes 12 muffins
2 cups (240g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
½ cup (99g) sugar
1 tablespoon (14g) baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (227g) milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional, depending on add-ins)
¼ cup butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
First, preheat your oven to 425°F and lightly grease the cups of muffin pan. Line the pan with paper liners and grease the liners.
Whisk together the flour with the sugar, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla, butter, and eggs.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir lightly with a fork, or fold together with a spatula until the batter just comes together.
Fill the cups of the muffin pan about three-quarters of the way full.
Bake the muffins for 15 to 20 minutes. Start checking on them after 15 minutes, and take them out as soon as they're golden brown on the top.
Remove them from the oven, and as soon as you can handle them, transfer them to a rack to cool. Make sure you don't leave them in the pan, or the residual heat of the pan can steam the muffins and make them tough instead of delicate.