I don’t make muffins very often—I’m more of a coffee cake or quick bread kind of gal mostly because they’re less work. Not that muffins are labor intensive, mind you. Nope, I’m just lazy. I’d rather grease and flour one cake or bread pan and pour all the batter into it than grease the edges of twelve little cups, line them with baking papers, and split up the dough into twelve equal-ish parts.

flour sugar salt baking powder flax meal walnuts — Dry ingredients in the bowl. Then you add the wet ingredients. Seriously simple.

But over the years, I’ve made my fair share of muffins. After using so many different recipes for each different kind of muffin, and not always liking the results, I got to thinking it would be REALLY nice to have one great base recipe that I could bake every time and just change up the additions depending on what my family was in the mood for.

So I did just that. I don’t remember which recipes I based this recipe on, but it was a combination of a good-ish recipe (or two) and a series of tweaks to suit my personal taste.

chopped apples — For apple muffins, I chop up apples and cook them with sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice before adding them to the batter. Apples don’t cook enough if put in raw, unless you shred them.

apples sugar cinnamon butter lemon juice — Cooked apples ready to be added to the batter. When you make this version, you need to add some extra flour to the batter because of the syrup that gets created at pre-cooking. See the Notes section of the recipe for all the how-to’s on apple muffins.

I think my favorite kind of recipe is the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure kind. Or, if they’re not my favorite, they are at least my most used. My favorite pie recipe is like that. I’ve posted an apple pie version, but you can use that same exact recipe (with the cinnamon omitted) for blueberry, black raspberry, and maybe even peach pie. (I haven’t tried it with peaches yet, but I think I need to!) My granola recipe is also like that–whatever kind of granola you’re wanting or whatever you happen to have on hand to throw into it, you can make that.

flour sugar butter milk cooked apples — Lightly mix in your additions.

Apple Everyday Basic Muffins — Fill the muffin tin and bake!

I love me a versatile recipe, and that’s exactly what this Everyday Basic Muffin recipe is. You can use it as a base recipe to make almost any kind of muffin you want. Berry? Of course. Apple? Yup. Cinnamon streusel? Sure thing. Cranberry? Absolutely. You are only limited by your imagination. (Or your pantry…unless you’re up for a quick grocery run.)

Of course, you may have a hankering for a particular kind of muffin, and you want a recipe tailored specifically for that. I definitely seek those out, too. Like Becky’s scrumptious Blueberry Muffins or my delectable Maple Muffins/Coffee Cake with Oat Streusel.

streusel muffin prep — If you want to make streusel muffins, half-fill the cups with batter, spoon a little streusel into each cup, then cover with the rest of the batter.

But if you’re looking to mix it up a bit, get a little adventurous, have an idea to try something new or even want to replicate something you got from the local bakery, what you need is a proven base recipe to start with.

And we’ve got you covered.

streusel muffins — Sooooooooooooo good, y’all.

Everyday Basic Muffins

A fully customizable recipe to create any kind of delicious muffin you want to make.

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Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 20

Total Time: 35

Course: Breakfast

Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients

Volume - Weight

Basic Muffin Recipe

2 cups all purpose flour (for GF use a one-to-one baking flour)
1 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons ground flax meal (optional, but adds good nutrition)
1/4 cup ground walnuts (optional, but adds good nutrition)
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup milk

Additions

1 cup any additions you desire: blueberries, black raspberries, chopped and cooked apples*, raisins, chopped cranberries, chocolate chips, cinnamon chips, etc

OR Cinnamon Streusel

1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 F/ 204 C. Prepare muffin tin by greasing around edges and lining cups with cupcake/muffin papers.
Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
Melt butter. Beat in eggs, then add milk. Pour wet ingredients into dry, and mix until just combined.

For 1 cup additions:

Gently mix in your chosen additions, then evenly distribute batter amongst the 12 prepared cups. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

For Streusel muffins:

Combine the brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon to make the streusel topping. Fill each muffin cup only half full of batter, place a spoonful of streusel in each cup, then top each one with the remaining batter. Spoon the remaining streusel on top of each muffin. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Notes

*To make the cooked apples: peel, core, and chop 2 medium apples. Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in a skillet, add chopped apples, 4 Tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1-2 Tablespoons of lemon juice. Cook over medium low heat until apples have softened. Let cool to just warm before adding to batter. (NOTE: Because cooking the apples will create some liquid in the pan, add 1/4 cup more flour to your batter.)

Baking for the fun of it

Everyday Basic Muffin Recipe