Master Muffin Recipe

Today on I’m showing you my Master Muffin Recipe.

Instead of giving you dozens of recipes for different flavors of muffins, today I’m sharing my master muffin recipe, which you can use to make almost any flavor, and it’s super easy.

Start by preheating your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Why You’ll Love This

This master muffin recipe is super easy.

Buttermilk is going to give you a little bit of a poofier muffin.

This is great because it demonstrates both using another flavor of extract as well as adding in fresh fruit.

This variation is fun because there’s just so many different flavors of instant pudding out there.

It makes it really easy to mix and match flavors really quickly without having to buy a bunch of extracts.

Now you know how to make pretty much any flavor of muffin that you want using one master recipe.

Ingredients

Master Muffin Recipe Base

1/2 cup of softened salted butter
1 cup of granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (or other flavors of extract like almond extract, orange extract, lemon extract)
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 cups total all-purpose flour
1/2 cup of either milk or buttermilk

Lemon Blueberry Muffin Variation Additions

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract
1 cup of fresh blueberries or frozen
zest of 1 lemon (about 1 tablespoon of lemon zest)
1 teaspoon of granulated sugar (for topping)

Chocolate Muffin Variation Additions

1 cup of cocoa powder, unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instant Pudding Muffin Variation Changes & Additions

3/4 of a cup of granulated sugar (instead of 1 cup)
3.4 ounce package of instant pudding mix (e.g., pistachio)
chopped pistachios (optional)

White Chocolate Cranberry Orange Muffin Variation Additions

1/2 cup of dried cranberries
1/2 cup of white chocolate chips
orange zest, 1-2 tablespoons total

Cinnamon Muffin with Streusel Variation Changes & Additions

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon (between 1/2 teaspoon and 1 full teaspoon)
1 cup of cinnamon chips

Streusel Topping Ingredients

1/4 cup of cold cubed butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper baking cups.
Give mine just a spritz of nonstick cooking spray right on those paper baking cups to prevent the muffins from sticking.
Cream together 1/2 cup of softened salted butter and 1 cup of granulated sugar with a hand mixer.
Keep on mixing for about 2 minutes until it is a smooth, paste-like, creamy consistency.
Add in 2 large eggs and mix this briefly until just combined, about 30 seconds.
Add in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Add in 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Give this a quick mix just to combine about 10 seconds.
Ditch your hand mixer and grab a rubber spatula.
Add in 1 cup of your all-purpose flour.
Use the rubber spatula to stir this in.
Once all those white specks of flour start to disappear, pour in 1/2 cup of either milk or buttermilk.
Stir this in as well until it’s well combined.
Add in the remaining 1 cup of all-purpose flour.
Stir this together, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure that everything gets mixed in.
Divide the batter up amongst our 12 muffin cups.
Fill each one about 2/3 of the way full.
Bake your muffins in the 425 degree oven for 7 minutes.
After 7 minutes, reduce the temperature on your oven to 350 degrees without opening the oven door.
Continue baking for 12 to 15 minutes.

Lemon Blueberry Muffin Instructions

After creaming together the sugar and butter and adding in the eggs, add in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract before adding in your baking powder and salt.
Continue on with the rest of the recipe, adding in the flour and buttermilk.
Once you have your batter finished, add in 1 cup of fresh blueberries or frozen even.
Add in the zest of 1 lemon, so about 1 tablespoon of lemon zest.
Simply fold this in.
Divide the batter evenly amongst the 12 muffin cups.
Sprinkle on about a teaspoon of granulated sugar on top of your muffins.
Bake these just as we did before.

Chocolate Muffin Instructions

Use your butter and sugar again just like before.
Add 1 cup of cocoa powder, unsweetened cocoa powder, and cream that in with it.
From here you’ll proceed with the rest of the master muffin recipe by adding in eggs, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract, all purpose flour, and milk or buttermilk.
Add in 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and fold those in.

Instant Pudding Muffin Instructions

Add in 3/4 of a cup of granulated sugar instead of 1 cup.
Replace that additional 1/4 cup with a 3.4 ounce package of instant pudding mix, and this time I’m using pistachio because it’s one of my favorite flavors.
Proceed with the master muffin recipe as directed.
Fold in some chopped pistachios if you wanted.

White Chocolate Cranberry Orange Muffin Instructions

Add in 1/2 cup of dried cranberries.
Add in 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips for 1 cup total add-ins.
Add in a little bit of orange zest, 1-2 tablespoons total.
Fold this in until the ingredients are evenly distributed.

Cinnamon Muffin with Streusel Instructions

After adding in the brown sugar and sugar, eggs, baking powder, salt, and vanilla extract, add in 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
Finish with the rest of the master muffin recipe by adding in the flour and buttermilk.
Fold in 1 cup of cinnamon chips.
Divide up the batter in your prepared muffin cups before making your streusel topping.
Make the streusel topping by combining 1/4 cup of cold cubed butter, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, and 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
Use a pastry cutter or you can use 2 knives cutting across each other to cut this all together until it resembles a coarse meal or sand.
Sprinkle this generously on top of your muffin batter.

Cooking Tips

For the lemon and citrus extracts, I recommend only using 1/2 teaspoon of those and combining that with 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

This is also the point where you’d add in any spices like cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice.

If you’re going to add anything into your muffins, like dried fruit, chocolate chips, or berries, now would be the time to do so.

Your batter should be thick but also spreadable.

Try to divide your batter up as evenly as possible because this does make 12 muffins.

You can let your muffin batter rest for about 15 minutes before popping it in the oven, or if you’re making a larger batch, you’re cooking different batches.

Watch them carefully as the cooking time will vary a little bit depending on your oven.

The addition of the cocoa powder really doesn’t do much to change the texture of the final batter.

Even though you can mix and match add-ins, you don’t have to make like chocolate chips or nuts or dried fruit, to 1 cup total.

You could even fold in some chopped pistachios if you wanted.

You can do chocolate chips, raisins, nuts, really the possibilities are endless.

You can use between 1/2 teaspoon and 1 full teaspoon of ground cinnamon. It really just depends on how pronounced you want that cinnamon flavor to be.

Cinnamon chips can be a little harder to find when it’s not the holidays.

A streusel is easy to make and it is a decadent addition to lots of different flavors of muffins.