Friday, April 13, 2012

M-Muffins!

I made my first batch of muffins this month.  I started with Mixed Berry Muffins!  I was super excited to see how they turned out.  Here's the recipe I followed:


Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup milk
1 cup mixed berries (theoretically you could put 1 cup of apples, chocolate chips, or whatever you like in your muffins--also, frozen fruit works too I just put mine in the microwave to thaw a bit)

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups (I used a household spray bottle with extra virgin olive oil, helps cut down on CFCs and waste to dispose of).
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate bowl, cream together sugar and shortening (if you do not know what cream means, it means mash it together with a fork until it is all the same consistency).
Stir the flour mixture into the sugar mixture alternately with the milk.
Add the fruit and stir in.
Pour batter into prepared muffin pan (every time I read muffin pan it makes me want to sing the nursery rhyme, do you know the muffin man lol).
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.  (I did 20 minutes)
They sure look good enough to eat!
And the verdict is that they taste pretty yummy, but next time I might do 1/8th cup shortening and 1/8th cup butter...there is just something missing, and I think it is butter...or maybe chocolate chips (they make everything better).

What about you?  What is something you recently learned how to make and made for the first time?  How often do you tweak recipes and what is your go-to add-in?

5 comments:

  1. Oh I love muffins! I think sometimes I like muffins better than cupcakes!

    Visiting and sticking around from A to Z!

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  2. Looks tasty :) Made recently... well the beer bread, which turned out well. I also tried a family recipe for blueberry cake that my mom said her grandmother (my great-grandmother) used to make. However, I didn't realize until after making the batter that it called for an angel-food cake pan...which I don't have. So I made it it a regular pan which was clearly a mistake although it tasted OK.

    I don't usually tweak recipes until I've tried it once. But I usually leave out nutmeg. I'll add garlic to savory dishes. I like adding cinnamon to anything baked with fruit. (I might have added cinnamon to those muffins, for example.) I have some plans for experimenting with different things to fold into beer bread.

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  3. i have recently made a pretty easy, and good chicken potpie --each time i have made it, i make it a little different---your muffins look delicious!

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  4. Your post made me hungry! I should be making dinner right now, not reading blogs, I guess.
    The latest cooking experiment for me was yogurt cheese. Very, very simple and very good.
    I am a recipe tweaker because I am always trying to cook more healthfully. I tend to replace white flour with whole wheat flour, this works better with some things than others. Great change to a muffin recipe, not so great when making biscuits.

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  5. Yum!
    I'm a fail at baking...and that makes me appreciate successful baking adventures even more.

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