Homebaked muffins are hard to beat. Unless you add more sugar and call them cupcakes. They are easily portable and have no need for utensils or even a plate in order to enjoy them.
This Mix and Match Muffin recipe has endless possibilities. Talk about versatility! Mix up the dry ingredients and when you add the wet team, toss in whatever fruit, nuts, or flavorings you have on hand. We’ve tried vanilla blueberry and banana chocolate chip (above) with great success. You can even prepare the baking mix ahead of time.
I was inspired by this recipe in Fine Cooking, but have tweaked it to fit the schedule of a busy mom. Who has time to separate eggs when there’s so much to do on any given day? I’ve also healthified it by substituting plain yogurt for the sour cream and a little whole wheat flour for the white.
Mix and Match Muffins
3 cups unbleached flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar, brown sugar, or sucanat
1/2 cup oil
1 cup milk
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 eggs
Mixins: 1 teaspoon extract, 1 1/2 cups any combination of fruit*, chopped nuts, chocolate*Possible fruit to use: mashed bananas, blueberries, finely chopped apples, raspberries, coarsley chopped cranberries
Preheat oven to 350 °. Line muffin tin with papers or spray with nonstick cooking spray. In large mixing bowl, combine, flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. (If preparing as a mix, simply combine all these ingredients in a ziptop bag, label well, mark with the wet ingredients and baking instructions.)
In a separate bowl, combine oil, milk, yogurt, and eggs. Whisk to blend. Add wet ingredients to dry. Fold gently until mostly moistened, but still lumpy. Fold in mix-ins.
For 12 large muffins, fill muffin cups completely, even mounding past their tops. For 18 kid-size muffind, fill almost full. Bake 25 – 35 minutes, depedning on how much you fill them.
A Great Make Ahead
This recipe is great for freezer cooking but also makes a fantastic gift for someone. You are definitely gonna want to mix up several bags of the mix for later use once you taste how yummy these muffins are.
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Is there anything you can think of that could replace the yogurt? My husband is lactose intolerant… I can use Lactaid milk for the recipe but I don't know what to swap out the yogurt with.
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Jolene: If your husband is just lactose intolerant and does not have a milk allergy (issues with milk protein) then he should be able to tolerated yogurt. The lactose is broken down by the bacterial cultures so hopefully he can tolerate it. {Sorry to respond unasked–I am a Registered Dietitian who just happened to see your question!}
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Thank you for answering, Jenni. I haven't got to the bottom of my inbox. I was thinking that was the case, but I'm glad to have an RD say so!
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Thank you! I didn't know that.
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I made these the other day for my husband who won't eat breakfast unless it's easy to grab. We both like them but both compared them to cornbread. What is it that makes us think that? The whole wheat flour maybe because it's a little grainier?
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Jessica Reply:
July 6th, 2010 at 7:53 am
It could depend on the grind of whole wheat flour. I’m not sure; I haven’t had that happen.
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Karen Reply:
July 8th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Try using WW pastry flour instead of regular WW flour. It’s a much finer grind. I use WW pastry flour for everything (often without any white flour) and my family doesn’t even notice.
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Where do you get those muffin cups? I don’t care for muffins without cups because of the hardened texture… I’m wondering if they are cheaper than cupcake muffin cups too. Thanks!
~ Michelle
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Jessica Reply:
July 6th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
These are actually portion cups that my sister gave me. She promised me they were oven safe. But, I really have no idea. I’ve seen them in the party section of Walmart.
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Since the yogurt is probably for moisture mainly, I would just use 1 cup applesauce instead of the oil and yogurt. I have a very similar muffin recipe and that is how I do it.
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I used this recipe for blueberry muffins last night and they turned out very good! My batter was very thick though so I added a little more milk, and I had enough batter to do 18 large muffins. I used half succanat and half cane sugar and sour cream instead of the yogurt, but I think it would be really yummy with vanilla yogurt too! Thanks for the recipe!
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