As often as I'm able, when the oven is already heated for something else, I'll mix a quick batch or two of muffins to stock the freezer. Muffins go from frozen to warm and ready-to-eat in 20 seconds in the microwave, turning an ordinary breakfast into something special or providing a nice accompaniment to an afternoon cup of tea.
The little pre-mix packages and boxes of muffin mix are so inexpensive that I seldom bother starting from scratch. But I do alter the mixes for flavor, texture and volume using whatever I might have on hand. Additional ingredients expand the mix resulting in larger muffins or more of the standard size making them even more of a bargain. When our blueberries are ripe, I always add a bunch to the blueberry muffin mix. Sometimes, if I have no blueberries, fresh or frozen, I'll poke a large grape sized hunk of cream cheese into the center of each filled cup of batter before putting the pans in the oven.
- To the Lemon-Poppy Seed muffins, try adding a good amount of sliced or slivered almonds
- To Oatmeal muffin mix, add a handful of uncooked oatmeal and a heaping Tbsp of applesauce or pomegranate sauce as moisture to balance the added dry oatmeal, a handful of raisins or banana chips, and dash of cinnamon and wow!
- To packaged banana nut muffins add additional...yep, crushed banana chips and walnuts...yummy!
My husband just ate a warm oatmeal/banana muffin with vanilla ice cream and asked me to post a comment for him. He says it's the best muffin he's ever eaten and next time I make them I should "double, no triple" the recipe. It was the Oatmeal Muffin mix prepared as above with a little brown sugar sprinkled on top before baking. Ha-he just went back for a second one saying, "it's one of those things you want no matter how full you are."
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