#1 METICULOUS MUFFINS #1

Meticulous Muffins 2015 Reposted from 3-30-10 and see 2013 repost from #1 Muffin Mix

Whew! I've been doing this way too long.  But it was just yesterday that a new friend told me she had been lusting after these muffins and needed the recipe.  It must be good.

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I know... more muffins, but this story is inspiring.   I promise. I am the Muffin Man this month.

My sister is making muffins. I'm referring to the graphic artist sister --the one that doesn't cook--but who designs beautiful blog headers.

She called last week, in advance, to tell me that she was planning to make my muffins on the weekend. Four days ahead.

She called again Friday night from the grocery store to make certain she had everything she needed. (She already had one of my mixes, but the instructions had rubbed off the ziplock.)

I couldn't remember what she needed. I bake so often that recipes bungle up in a tangled mass in my head and bounce around like a hoarded ball of rubber bands.

So Saturday morning, I methodically made a batch of muffins. Across the country, 1200 miles apart, she and I made muffins simultaneously. I unearthed my measuring cups and spoons from the depths of the drawer and measured meticulously. I specifically stuck to the recipe. I think that two tablespoons of oil is probably less than one of my big gluggs--more like a small blerp.

It was hard! As I mixed, I had to stop my ADD brain from bouncing off and thinking, "Oh, it needs another glugg of milk." "I should pour in a little green smoothie." "Wouldn't cranberries be good?"

No, I stubbornly stuck to the recipe. And the muffins were perfect! Wow! Not flat, not a dip in the middle, not too much for the pans, not too poofy, just perfection!

I made the college bound son also stick to this recipe with the four batches he's made since, and it's been very successful. (He's working next on dexterously pouring inside the mini-muffin cups.)

1 egg

1/2 cup applesauce, or pumpkin, or banana

1/2 cup buttermilk (1 tsp. lemon juice in any milk should substitute. Oops, there I go again.)

1/2 cup milk (almond, rice, or soy--have substituted nicely before.)

2 Tbs. oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice  

1/4 cup flax (optional, but cut down on milk... See how hard it is for me?)

1 1/2 cup muffin mix (mine or any old brand of sweetened/leavened GF baking mix)  see below

1/2 cup chocolate chips or nuts (optional)

Mix and fill mini muffin tins about 3/4 full, bake 350 for 15 minutes or until the top is tapped and bounces back. Makes 24 mini-muffins.

Whew!



Muffin Mix

1 1/2 cup gluten free flour (I used my wholegrain mix)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon guar or xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tsp salt.
1/2 cup sugar (I have also substituted 1/4 cup honey in my wet ingredients instead.)