When I was in seventh grade I took Home Ec(onomics) in school. I didn’t do so well in the sewing part of the class, but I did pretty well in the cooking part. In fact, I did so well with making muffins that during the summer following seventh grade I entered my muffins in the county fair. And won a blue ribbon!
I love muffins. I mostly love muffins that are plain or have berries in them. I won’t eat a chocolate muffin, and oaty muffins are wasted on me. I thought I’d share my recipe for Blue Ribbon Muffins in case you like muffins as much as I do. It’s a plain recipe, and you can add a cup of berries to the batter if you like.
First of all, grease the bottoms only of your muffin tin. Bottoms only. This is very important because if you grease the sides your muffins might not have a nice, rounded top. Then, whisk together:
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
In a separate bowl mix together:
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and fold gently until the dry mixture is completely moistened. Don’t over stir because then you’ll get air holes or “tunnels” in your muffins. The batter should be lumpy. Spoon batter into muffin cups. You can use paper liners if you prefer (and you wouldn’t have to grease the tin at all) but I find that makes the muffins drier than if they are baked right in the tin.
This is a good consistency for muffin batter. The wet ingredients are carefully folded so there is no dry flour in the mix, but the batter is still lumpy.
After the batter is evenly distributed between twelve muffin cups, bake in a preheated 400° F oven for about twenty minutes. It might take longer or shorter, depending on your oven.
A perfect muffin! Nice rounded top.
Let the muffins cool for about five minutes in the pan, and then remove to cool completely.
Like I said earlier, this recipe can take a cup of berries if you want a more fruity muffin. I like to add blueberries or raspberries when I’m in the mood. You can mix up these muffins in the time it takes your oven to preheat, so you’ll never have the excuse of “I have no time to bake.”
These plain muffins are divine with a bit of butter.
You can also freeze the muffins for a later date. I put them in the freezer immediately after they’re completely cool, to prevent them from drying out. However, I don’t normally freeze them unless I’ve made two batches. We can eat one batch of muffins pretty quickly in my house.
Who would have thought I’d still be making the muffins I made forty years ago in Home Ec class? And why wouldn’t I? They’re blue ribbon winners!
Auntie B's Wax 
These sound fantastic, Sara. I’ll try them on a day when I feel I have some self control, as I can zip through a batch of some good thing all on my own some days! Thanks for the recipe!
I wish I had one of these muffins right now! It’s a snowy April morning and a little muffin with a lot of butter would make me feel really good. Maybe I’ll make some when I get home from the day day job!
If you make these muffins let me know what you think. They’re just plain muffins, but somethings that’s all you need.
They look good! I sometimes just feel like something simple too. I have a second blog that is for sweet things, so if I ever make these, I’ll pop them on that site and give you a shout out on there for providing the recipe. I need some new muffin tins though, mine are so old looking I daren’t include them in any photographs!
You HAVE to give me the link to your sweet things blog! I’m always looking for new, sweet recipes. As for your “old-looking” muffin tins, maybe they’d make you look like a champion baker more than a brand spankin’ new tin would look. ??? Thanks for checking in!
It’s here – http://sugarness.com/ I’m not particularly good at cooking but I really like it, and I share my successes as well as my mistakes on there! I only started it in January this year so there’s not a huge amount on there, but there’s a few good ones!
I’m off to visit right now. Thanks for the link, and see you there!
By gosh, Sara, this is the THIRD blog I’ve come across which mentioned a dislike of sewing. What’s going on with that? As for those muffins, they look so tasty. Wouldn’t mind one right now. Hot with butter…mmmmm….
I wouldn’t say I don’t like sewing, I’m just not very good at it. I sew like a drunk person, unable to sew in a straight line. As for the muffins – oh yeah, butter makes ’em better.
Ha ha, like a drunk person. Oh, excuse me, I didn’t mean to laugh. I sew like a drunk person, too. 😉
Oh, it’s all very laughable. I still do it occasionally though, and laugh and laugh at myself while I’m doing it.