Foolproof basic muffin recipe

This basic muffin recipe is easy to alter depending upon whether you want to make sweet or savory muffins.

I love it because you don’t need to faff around weighing the ingredients. Just find a cup in the cupboard and use it to measure both your wet and dry ingredients. The ratio given below works on this multi-purpose muffin recipe.

When I lived in Melbourne, I had a Saturday morning routine. I would get up at about 7am and head to the market to get the week’s food. Once home, I would quickly make a batch of muffins using up whatever fruit I had left over from the last week’s shopping. While the muffins were cooking, I would put the new shopping away, make a cappuccino, and settle down to read the newspaper with the freshly made muffins. I was usually eating and reading by about 8:30am. A perfect start to the day.

If you want to make a sweet muffin, add 1 cup of your chosen sugar and add a little more milk. If you are making savoury muffins, just leave out the sugar and add your cheese or whatever you are using. You will probably need an extra splash of milk if adding a lot of extra ingredients.

What you add to the muffin recipe is entirely up to you. On the sweet side, I like apple & cinnamon, blueberry, lemon zest & poppy seed, banana, or pear & ginger (1/2 tsp of ground ginger is all you need). On the savoury side, my favourite is a spicy cheese muffin. I add a cup of grated cheese (strong cheddar with some parmesan), 1/2 tsp of cayenne, finely chopped chives, chopped prosciutto, and chopped parsley but use your imagination.

As they are so easy to make, this is a great muffin recipe to do with kids although be prepared for some strange flavour requests!