Homemade Muffin Mix

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Why Make This

It works. At Good Cheap Eats we don’t mess around with recipes that only sometimes work. A fail in the kitchen costs money. This homemade muffin mix recipe turns out every single time.

It’s the only muffin recipe you’ll ever need! This Homemade Muffin Mix recipe has endless possibilities. It’s one basic batter that you can customize however you like. 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. Make blueberry muffins in summer and cranberry orange muffins in fall and anything else you have on hand the rest of the year.

It’s efficient. Making a homemade muffin mix is a great way to save money, control ingredients, and enjoy the best homemade muffins whenever you like. A homemade mix is so easy and cheap to make! You are definitely gonna want to mix up several bags of the mix for later use once you taste how yummy these muffins are. 

It’s very make-ahead. This make-ahead muffins recipe can be stored as a mix, or you can bake and freeze muffins. You can even freeze unbaked muffins to bake later!

It makes a great gift. This recipe is great for freezer meal prep but also makes a fantastic gift for someone. Alternatively, you can fill a basket with baked muffins. You’ll be Friend of the Year whichever way you go.

Ingredients

I was inspired by a Joann Chang recipe for bakery-style muffins, 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.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own homemade muffin mix:

unbleached, all-purpose flour – This is the type of flour I typically use in all my recipes. You can also use the bleached variety or whole wheat pastry flour which is a whole grain with a softer texture that isn’t so wheaty.

sugar – You can use whatever dry sweetener you typically use in baking, such as granulated sugar, brown sugar, or sucanat (dehydrated sugar cane juice).

whole wheat flour – This is optional but I like the earthiness it adds to the muffins. You can use regular flour if you prefer.

leavenings – You’ll need baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Don’t omit any of these, but do remember you can make your own baking powder substitution if you need to.

eggs – I’ve made these muffins with whole eggs, egg whites for more protein, (use 3 tablespoons for each whole egg in the recipe) or even flaxseed meal egg substitute.

milk and yogurt – My default liquids are milk and yogurt for this recipe because they are regular grocery staples, but you can use any combination of milk, plain yogurt, cottage cheese, buttermilk, or ricotta. Shop your kitchen to save money! If you have a plant-based item you prefer, that should work as well. Just make sure you’re adding 1 ½ cups of liquid in addition to the oil.

neutral oil – I use avocado oil, but you can use whatever oil you typically use as well as melted butter, margarine, or a plant-based butter.

vanilla extract – Vanilla adds flavor to these homemade muffins. You can use any flavor extract you prefer as long as it goes well with your mix-ins.

mix-ins for muffins – Here’s the part where you can really get creative! You can use any combination of nuts, seeds, chocolate, fruit (such as mashed bananas, whole blueberries or raspberries, finely chopped apples, or coarsely chopped cranberries) or veggies (such a mashed and cooked sweet potato, pumpkin, squash, or shredded raw carrot, zucchini, or summer squash).

You can make so many fun flavor combos with this homemade muffin mix!

Muffins are delicious plain, but you can make them so much better by varying the fruits and flavorings that you stir in. Consider:

• blueberries and nutmeg
• lime zest and chocolate chunks
• shredded carrot and spices
• berries and ricotta
• pineapple tidbits and flaked coconut
• chopped strawberries and rhubarb

There are so many delicious combinations of fruits, nuts, spices, and extracts, you could probably make a different type of muffin every day of the month!

Step-by-Step Instructions

The process is super simple to make your homemade mix:

• Collect containers you’d like to use to store the mix. This can be mason jars with lids, plastic containers with lids, or ziptop quart size bags. 
• Label the containers with the baking instructions as well as what wet ingredients should be added. You’re only going to put dry ingredients in your jar.
• Layer in the ingredients in the jar: flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Store the mix in a cool dry place until ready to use. For longest shelf life, store the mix in the freezer.

When you’re ready to bake your muffins:

• Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with muffin papers or spray with nonstick cooking spray. For smaller muffins, you will want 18 cups prepared.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk the muffin mix to eliminate any clumps.
• In a separate bowl, combine the milk, oil, yogurt, eggs, and extract, if using. Whisk to blend. 
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Fold gently until mostly moistened, but still lumpy and with a few dry spots. Fold in mix-ins of your choosing.
• For 12 large muffins, fill muffin cups completely, even mounding past their tops. For 18 kid-size muffins, fill almost full. 
• Bake 20 – 30 minutes, depending on how much you fill them. Bake until a tester comes out clean and/or the internal temperature has reached 200 degrees F. Cool on a wire rack before serving.

Freezing Tips

If you don’t have the time to bake the muffins right before serving, no worries! You can cool them on a rack, wrap them well, and freeze them. (Remember you can also freeze muffins unbaked!)

When ready to serve, pull out as many muffins as you’d like and let them sit at room temperature for an hour or two until thawed.

Best Muffin Tools

After years of weekly (sometimes daily?!) muffin baking, I’ve come across a few tools that I absolutely LOVE for making homemade muffins:

• parchment muffin papers – I prefer using muffin papers since we’re such an on-the-go household. Muffin liners make it easier for transport as well as serving. I’ve found that parchment is the best for not sticking to the muffin.
• USA muffin pan – Whether you use papers or not, the USA pan is the best for easy clean up since there’s no need to grease the pan. Everything cleans up easily.
• Rubber spatula – I like to get every last bit of batter to make sure my muffins are big. A rubber spatula makes that easy.

A few notes about this recipe:

A few things of note about this recipe. Originally, back in 2009, I baked these muffins at 350, but since raised the heat to 375 and reduced the baking time a bit. I like the crunchier texture of the baked muffin this way. If you prefer, you can bake at the reduced temperature.

Keep in mind the cups do get VERY full. That’s okay. Just spray the top of the pan to make sure they don’t stick. If you want smaller muffins, go for it. Just reduce the baking time.

The Cost of Homemade

We often assume that homemade is cheaper than a store-bought mix. Surely, homemade tastes better and allows you to control which ingredients are used, but it’s always good to crunch the numbers to see if it’s worth any price difference.

Here’s what it costs to make the homemade mix (not including wet ingredients or add-ins) when you buy the ingredients at a mid-range grocery store:

• all-purpose flour – $0.45 ($2.69/5# bag)
• sugar – $0.22 ($1.97/4# bag)
• whole wheat flour – $0.13 ($3.99/5# bag)
• baking powder- $0.09 ($1.49/8.1 oz)
• baking soda – $0.01 ($0.99/16oz)
• salt – $0.02 ($2.99/26 oz)

A homemade mix that yields 12 extra large muffins costs 92 cents! This does not account for the wet ingredients, the oil, eggs, milk, yogurt, or mix-ins. You will easily be able to keep the cost per muffin quite low!

A similar commercial mix that makes 6 muffins costs $1.79. This does include the eggs and oil, however, even accounting for the cost of those ingredients, homemade is way cheaper, making it more than worth your while to make your own homemade muffin mix.

FAQs

Favorite Muffin Variations

This post was originally published on November 8, 2009. It has been updated for content and clarity.