Basic Muffins: Simple and Easy

By
Danilo Alfaro
Danlio Alfaro
Danilo Alfaro
Danilo Alfaro has published more than 800 recipes and tutorials focused on making complicated culinary techniques approachable to home cooks.
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Updated on 11/26/21
Basic muffins recipe
The Spruce
Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 20 mins
Total: 35 mins
Servings: 12 servings
Yield: 12 muffins
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
162 Calories
5g Fat
26g Carbs
3g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 12
Amount per serving
Calories 162
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 5g 7%
Saturated Fat 3g 15%
Cholesterol 28mg 9%
Sodium 256mg 11%
Total Carbohydrate 26g 9%
Dietary Fiber 1g 2%
Total Sugars 9g
Protein 3g
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 98mg 8%
Iron 1mg 7%
Potassium 57mg 1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Why a basic muffin? It's a good question. Assuming you want muffins, wouldn't you want them with blueberries or chocolate chips or nuts or raisins or, you know, something?

But before you answer the question, consider these three words: plain cake donuts.

In other words, sometimes you're in the mood for something simple. In fact, sometimes simple ends up being better. For one thing, you actually taste the muffin.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour, or 2 1/4 cups pastry flour, sifted

  • 1/2 cup sugar

  • 1 tablespoon baking powder

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  • 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

  • 1 cup whole milk

  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

  • 1 large egg

  • 4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients. Preheat your oven to 400 F.

    Basic muffin ingredients
    The Spruce

  2. Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

    Dry ingredients for basic muffins
     The Spruce

  3. Heat the butter in the microwave, in a microwave-safe bowl, for about a minute, until it's thoroughly melted. Set it aside at room temperature to cool, but don't let it solidify again.

    Melted butter
     The Spruce

  4. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and then add the sugar, milk, and vanilla.

    Eggs, milk, and super and vanilla in bowl
     The Spruce

  5. Thoroughly grease and flour a 12-cup muffin pan (or use paper muffin liners).

  6. Ensure that the melted butter is warm, but not hot. Pour a tiny bit of the butter into the egg-vanilla-milk mixture and stir it in. Repeat a few more times, adding a slightly larger amount of the liquid butter each time until it's all incorporated.

  7. Now add the liquid ingredients to the dry ones and mix just until the dry ingredients are barely incorporated. Don't mix too long—10 to 15 seconds at the most! The batter will be visibly lumpy, and you may see pockets of dry flour, but that's okay. Overmixing the batter will cause your muffins to be rubbery.

    Muffin batter
     The Spruce

  8. Let the batter rest for 10 to 15 minutes, to allow the glutens in the flour to relax, and some of those pockets of dry flour to dissolve.

  9. Gently pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and bake immediately.

    Muffin batter in tins
     The Spruce

  10. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

    Basic muffins
     The Spruce

  11. Serve and enjoy.

Tips

  • If you'd like to add a bit more flavor to your muffins, stir in a cup of something like blueberries, chocolate chips, or nuts. Just make sure to add your stir-ins with the dry ingredients, rather than stirring them in at the end. Coating them with flour will help prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins while they bake.
  • Using freshly ground spices instead of ground spices from jars is always going to produce better results because the ones in the jars go stale quickly and lose their flavor. You can get whole cinnamon sticks and whole nutmeg and grate them using a spice grater like a Microplane.

Recipe Variation