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Making Delicious Muffins from Scratch
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If you bake them right, there’s nothing like a fresh-out-of-the-oven muffin. Good muffins should be moist, light, and pillow-soft (not spongy). Here are our top tips and tricks on baking muffins, plus 12 recipeideas.
Using MuffinPans
- Most muffin recipes use a12–cup muffin pan, each cup having a capacity of about 1/3 cup. This has become a standard size for the new, non-stick muffin and most aluminum pans for sale. If your pan has larger or smaller cups, adjust the baking time by about five minutes more for the larger muffins and five minutes less for the smaller ones. If muffins in the small cups get too brown, reduce the oven temperature to 375°F.
- Grease muffin pans well before adding the batter. Save paper from sticks of butter for this, or use an oil spray (After experimenting with paper baking cups and greased pans, I’ve come to prefer the greased pans. Sometimes, baking cups cause the bottoms of the muffins to get soggy, or the muffins will stick to them). If you prefer paper baking cups, grease them with vegetable oil spray before putting the batter in.
- If you end up with too little batter in your batch for the number of cups in your pan, put a little water in the empties to keep the greased surfaces from scorching in theoven.
How to Make MuffinsMoist
- Depending on what ingredients you’re using, the batter will range from runny (like thin cake batter) to very thick (like drop-cookie dough). As a general rule, the thinner the batter, the lighter the muffins will be when baked. But don’t be afraid to bake thick, gloppy batter. It can yield moist muffins with extra keeping power.
- Buttermilk gives muffins a special moistness and flavor. You can buy it fresh in most supermarkets or look for dry, powdered buttermilk, which will keep for weeks and is the next best thing. Add the powder to your dry ingredients, and add the amount of water needed to the wet ingredients. (Note: Whenever you add buttermilk to a recipe, add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda per cup ofbuttermilk.)
Tips for the Best EverMuffins
- Most muffin recipes offer dire warnings: “Don’t overmix! Fill muffin cups only a fraction of the way—from 1/2 to 2/3.” Ignore all this and use common sense. Don’t be afraid to stir the ingredients together until they look like batter. Remember not to use an electric mixer since beating the batter will produce hockey pucks. Fill the cups as much as you want to. The idea is to bake some muffins, not worry about what fraction of space the batter should occupy. I confess that I spoon the batter around in my 12–cup pan as evenly as I can, usually filling each cup right up to the top, and the muffins come out fine. Try using a small ice cream scoop to fill the cups!
- Keep your pantry stocked with imaginative additions for muffins: raisins, nuts, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, canned pumpkin or squash, applesauce, and pineapple tidbits. You can also add dry or cooked breakfast cereal, wheat germ, and granola to the batter.
- For a special effect, before baking muffins, sprinkle them with sugar or cinnamon sugar. Or use this Crumb Topping: In a food processor, combine 1 cup flour, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup rolled oats or granola, two teaspoons cinnamon, and one stick cold butter (cut into small bits). Pulse together until the mixture forms fine crumbs. Store in a covered jar in the freezer and use as needed.
- Best-Ever Leftovers: To jazz up leftover muffins, split them in half, butter each half, and place them under the broiler for a couple of minutes. Be careful reheating them in a microwave; they can quickly getsoggy.
12 Mouthwatering MuffinRecipes
Now that you have all these tips try some of our favorite muffinrecipes:
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French MorningMuffins
Lemon-ZucchiniMuffins
![How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (6) How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (6)](https://i0.wp.com/www.almanac.com/sites/default/files/images/recipe-zuc_lemon_muffins.jpeg)
Apple CiderMuffins
Pumpkin GingerMuffins
![How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (8) How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (8)](https://i0.wp.com/www.almanac.com/sites/default/files/image_nodes/pumpkin-muffins_0.jpg)
Old-Fashioned BlueberryMuffins
![How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (9) How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (9)](https://i0.wp.com/www.almanac.com/sites/default/files/image_nodes/blueberry-muffins-pixabay-resized.jpeg)
Morning GloryMuffins
![How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (10) How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (10)](https://i0.wp.com/www.almanac.com/sites/default/files/images/recipe-morning_glory_muffin-1_copy.jpeg)
Lemon PoppyseedMuffins
![How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (11) How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (11)](https://i0.wp.com/www.almanac.com/sites/default/files/image_nodes/lemon-poppy-seed-muffin-resized.jpeg)
RhubarbMuffins
![How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (12) How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (12)](https://i0.wp.com/www.almanac.com/sites/default/files/images/recipe-rhubarb_muffins.jpeg)
Lemon-BlueberryMuffins
![How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (13) How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (13)](https://i0.wp.com/www.almanac.com/sites/default/files/images/lemon-blueberry-muffins.jpeg)
Barbara’s VidaliaMuffins
![How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (14) How to Make the Best Muffins: Baking Tips and 12 Recipes (14)](https://i0.wp.com/www.almanac.com/sites/default/files/image_nodes/vidalia_muffins.jpg)
Happy baking! What’s your favorite type of muffin to make? Let us know in thecomments!
Want to try your hand at pie? See How to Make Pie: Crusts, Fillings, and More.
Baking
Breads
About The Author
Catherine Boeckmann
Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s Almanac found each other. She leads digital content for the Almanac website, and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana. Read More from Catherine Boeckmann
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Comments
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I pour the batter into a zipper bag, cut off a tip of the bag and pipe it into the muffin cups. Cut off a small tip for thin batters and a larger tip for thicker batters or those with chunks such as chocolate chips & blueberries. I hate having to clean up the batter that dribbles all over when I've used the other methods, plus I've found it to be quicker. I'm a messy baker!!
- Reply
Whatever I make it never comes out as good as the Costco ones. So is their pumpkin pie. Both better than any other recipe.
- Reply
What kind of breakfast muffin is good with syrup? When I went away to school we had muffins for breakfast that everyone ate with syrup over them. They were really good and I have always wished I had the recipe.
- Reply
Any tips on what to do when you want your muffins either flat or raised, for aesthetics or practical purposes. I like my cornbread muffins spongy but flat, as well as muffins that are going to be put together and frosted over like a single cake. But most of the times they raise too much.
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While baking muffin I add granulated white sugar which (I think results in ) making the muffin rock solid n it caramels n make the muffin brown in colour n it also hardens what to do for this??
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Lemon is one of my favorites; the Lemon Zest is what make the muffins or cake "the best"; to zest a lemon; use a fine grater on the whole lemon with the peel; then use the lemon juice with the zest; :);
- Reply
I especially like the recipes. Do you have one for lemon muffins? My M.i.l. had one that was the best ! Unfortunately, back in the day, I didn't save it. Thank you.
- Reply
Thank you, Ruth! We have several lemon muffin recipes. I hope one of these works for you:
Lemon Muffin
Lemon Poppy-SeedMuffins
- Reply
Hey, I found a recipe that requires heating up some of the ingredients in a saucepan, which I didn't because like a dolt, didn't read the full insteuctiins.
My question, though, whats the difference in heating up the ingredients first before baking? I've seen some recipes for Brownies that are similar.
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Often it is to help ingredients incorporate better and more uniformly.
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