Standard Muffin Recipe – A plain muffin batter is added to a muffin tin, then you can add your favorite flavors (fruit, nuts, chocolate, etc.) to each muffin. Great for kids and guests because everyone gets to choose the type of muffin they want.
About a year ago, I noticed several recipes trending on Pinterest involving pancake batter and muffin tins. Some people called them puffins, some people called them individual baked pancakes. The general idea was to take pancake batter and pour it into a muffin tin, then top the batter with your favorite flavors (fruits, nuts, chocolate chips, oats, etc.) and bake it. I thought it was a great idea, so I tried it. Unfortunately, I didn’t really like it. The thing about pancake batter is, it’s not very good on its own. That’s probably why most people douse their pancakes in lots of maple syrup. Even when I added syrup to the baked pancakes, or whatever you want to call them, they still weren’t my favorite.
But, I still really liked the idea of being able to use a bunch of different flavors/toppings to add to one standard batter. The batter just needed to taste better. So why not use the muffin tin for it’s actual purpose, making muffins! Muffin batter is lighter and sweeter; and you can still add all of your favorite additional ingredients to it.
This is great for house guests, kids, and picky eaters because everyone can choose their favorite flavor of muffin to make. It’s also a great way to get creative in the kitchen. I tried a lot of different flavor combinations and some of the ones that sounded a little strange ended up being great, like dried cranberry and sweetened coconut.
All you do is follow the standard muffin recipe below, fill a muffin tin with the batter, and top with your favorite muffin flavors/additions. Use a toothpick to push the additional ingredients down into the batter and swirl them around a bit. This way the additional ingredients are spread throughout the muffin and don’t just sit on top of it, as you can see in the blueberry muffin pictured on the right. Then, just bake and cool the muffins like any other muffin recipe. 
The amount of additional ingredients you add is up to you, if you like lots of chocolate chips in your muffins, then add lots of chocolate chips. I ended up using about a tablespoon of each additional ingredient.
I experimented with lots of different flavor additions for this standard muffin recipe. Here are a few that I tried: blueberry (pictured on the right), banana nut, chocolate chip, dried cranberry & sweetened coconut, mango & sweetened coconut, Peanut butter & jelly, and brown sugar & oats.
This brown sugar and oats muffin was another one of my favorites. The brown sugar addition really sweetened it up.
I do have a suggestion for your flavor additions. If you are adding an ingredient that is not very sweet, like blueberries, you may want to roll that ingredient around in a little sugar before you add it to the batter.
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Standard Muffin Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup skim milk, or your preferred milk/milk alternative
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup canola or vegetable oil
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place muffin liners in a muffin tin and spray with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine.
- In another bowl, add the sugar, milk, vanilla, egg, and oil. Whisk to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined; batter should be lumpy. Do not over mix.
- Fill the muffin liners ¾ of the way up.
- Add your favorite muffin flavors/additions (fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, oats, etc.). Take a toothpick and push the additional ingredients down into the batter and swirl them around a little.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Great
These muffins are delicious ! I used butter in place of the oil and added blueberries and sliced strawberries. I used a mini muffin pan and baked them about 8-10 minutes. The recipe made 30 mini muffins.
Loved the idea to make a variety. I made three different ones. For my oven, 400 for 20 minutes was too long. I will probably reduce the temperature next time. They came out a little dry.
Great Recipe, I added 2 small mashed bananas, 3/4 cup milk, dash of cinnamon, mini chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and skor pieces. So yummy
Great base recipe, great flavor! I added chopped apple rolled in just a little brown sugar to the batter for my first try, and am very happy with the results!
Adding the blueberries, can I use frozen or does it have to be fresh blueberries?
Frozen works great, they don’t all sink to the bottom like fresh fruit dose, when possible, frozen fruit is my route I take.
I’ve baked these muffins since i was a teenager. It was as go to meal after i moved out of my parents house and those basic ingredients was all that i had to eat. just mix all the dry ingredients together. Then add the wet ingredients, along with anything else. There is really no need to use two bowls. that is just complicating things. And, as for the muffin pan, cooking spray is all you will need. You can substitute whole wheat flour, or mix in bran cereal for a more nutritious muffin. Add peanuts, and a little peanut butter for peanut muffins. Or, add any nuts, seeds, or dried fruit for that healthy hippy muffin.
Beautifully light I made 6 batches for a baby shower and they ate the lot!!
My favorite muffin recipe ❤️❤️
Wonderfully moist muffin! I don’t want a cupcake, but a muffin. Delish, not too sweet – add your own sweetness. My son loves brown sugar cinnamon. So good I shared with friends and due to demand, have to make them two nights in a row!
How much brown sugar
I just made these and they are excellent! High, light, and fluffy. I will try the recipe as-is next time, which will be soon, but just to use up stuff I had, I used 1/4 c. graham flour and 1 3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour. They came out perfect even with these somewhat heavier flours. I added a very small amount of PB and jelly the tops of some, and a few oatmeal grains to all, and mixed in with a toothpick before baking. Delicious!
i spend so much money on muffin mix. Its what my husband wants every morning. i made these foe him and added cinnamon and brown sugar. they turned out great
I was given the recipe by a colleague over 20 years ago but the only difference is that he used 2 eggs. Would that make them heavier or lighter than yours?
I didn’t use egg, so I had to substitute with more milk and oil and it came out beautiful.
The taste is heavenly.
Thank you for this recipe.
You skipped the egg altogether and they were fine? How much more milk and oil did you add?
You can also use 1/4 cup applesauce to replace each egg. Comes out perfect every time and adds a hint more sweetness.
Delicious!!!
Very heavy muffin. Not at all cakey.
Love this recipe. I make it using King Arthur Measure for Measure gluten free flour, works perfectly every time!
I accidentally used a baking mix and used too much salt and baking powder but other than that theses are amazing!
Have you ever thought of trying orange and fresh ginger? I need a basic recipe but want to add these and also candied ginger. Vera Vera
How much do you add for brown sugar oats?
Delicious and easy. I made 3 batches with blueberries, raspberries and strawberries! Yummy
Very good!
Just made 4 batches including blueberry, cinnamon oat, peanutbutter banana, and raspberry. YUM!
Wonderful
Great basic recipe! I substituted King Arthur Measure for Measure gf flour and rice milk. They came out fantastic!! I used strawberries. Can’t wait to try other variations!
It’s amazing, I’ve done it like millions of times and everyone loves it!
Love this recipe! It’s so nice to be able to to customize muffins for everyone and the recipe is simple enough that my toddler loves to help with it (she loves anything that allowed her to use a whisk)!
The muffins are great! When i first took a bite, the top lauer was crispy and thin. The inner muffin was soft. Any ways for me to post pics of the muffins on this page?
There are 4 teenage boys and 3 adults in this household. Sorry to say I only made one batch to try them out. Triple batch from now on. If I had 2 ovens, they’d both be full of muffins. Everyone gave a big thumbs up.
Thank you!
Made these tonight! Super delicious! Thank you so much for this recipe!!!
I’m going to be honest and say I did not care for these. I followed the recipe to the exact amounts and found the texture not muffin-like at all. Very disappointed as I put so much faith in the reviews and made them for my New Year’s Day brunch and will toss them instead.
Simple and delicious!
These came out grea! I used coconut oil because I didn’t have anything else, and I didn’t get it to melt all the way so I was worried. But they came out perfectly! I baked them for 19 minuets and then let them sit in the pan for 5 and then removed them and they’re just how I like it,
There’s a slight golden crust but over all pretty pale, that’s how I like mine. Even though a minute wouldn’t make an insane difference 🙂
Amazing recipe, easy and fast to make, delicious, fool proof, and my family loved it too! 🙂 This was my first time making muffins, and I am glad I found this recipe.
This recipe shows me “13 muffins” worth of ingredients by default, and when I combined the mentioned ingredients, that resulted in 12, not 13. (I converted everything to metric because I’m not USA based 🙂 )
I’ll be making muffins again and again. Next time, I’ll double the load and try more flavours ^^ Thank you so very much for sharing this recipe!
Great recipe! Super easy to follow and every flavor turned out amazing.
I am going to use this recipe for my science experiment! I am so glad I found a good one. In my experiment I have to use the same amount of different types of flour and test which flour causes the highest muffin density. Since, I only need one muffin with each type of flour, I can make the rest for my friends and family!!
PS- I am 14
Easy and perfect 👌🏼
Hi
Can I use one cup of quick oat meal and one cup all purpose flour?
Can I mix the dry ingredients and keep it in a jar?
Made these this morning, added blueberries to half the batter and bananas to other half. They came out so moist and not overly sweet. Great recipe!
I accidentally added a whole cup of milk to my BettyCrocker blueberry muffins (only require 1/2 cup) and didn’t know what to do. In desperation I halved the dry parts of your recipe and mixed it into the same bowl as my watery concoction, I threw in the whole tsp of vanilla and they turned out great. I filled the muffin cups up to a 1/4 inch from the brim and they had beautiful tops. I buttered the tops fresh out of the oven and sprinkled them lightly with sugar. These muffins were amazing, thanks for saving our breakfast.
you only need to cook them for 12-14 min
This is now my go to muffin recipe ! I doubled it, used canned condensed milk, and got 24 muffins; I made four different flavors, blueberry, dried cranberry with grated lemon rind, mini chocolate chip and confetti with multi colored sprinkles. This recipe is so versatile and I love that they are not too sweet!
amazing muffins I cooked them for 17 min and added approximately 1/2 cup fresh mashed raspberries ,approximatley 1/2 cup frozen mixed berriesapproximatley 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds and 1/8 cup crushed coconut chips AND 1/4 cup water
they were gone in minutes
They were great! The batter was pretty thick so I added 1/4 cup milk. Next time I will try it w/o since the last commenter said it was fine. I used olive oil since it’s healthier. I didn’t do fruit but I have in other recipes. Put them in a bowl with some sugar over night and then they’ll be really sweet.
The batter seemed quite thick when I scooped it out but they turned out nice and fluffy! We used mini muffins pans and cut the bake time to about 9 minutes. This is a great recipe for a quick, customizable, tastyt muffin!
Amazing but I found the cook time to be long. I would check at 16 minutes to be sure. Thank you!!
Amazing! They are big, Golden, and puffy! I love them!
super happy with how these came out! I had never baked muffins before and loved how simple this recipe was. After baking for 18 minutes they were beautifully golden brown on the top. The middle and inside were light and fluffy. For some, I swirled in some brown sugar and they came out delicious!
Hi just wondering how you cook your muffins if you’ve never eaten a ‘baked’ one?? I always bake mine I.e cook them in the oven. I do t know of any other way unless you do? Thanks 😊
I took it to mean she’s just never made muffins before. Not that she usually cooks them another way but has never baked them.
Tried the recipe and it came out so perfect. Thank you so much it’s simple and easy.
I love this recipe! I like to experiment with it because it allows for so much leeway. This morning I added a little extra milk and some cinnamon sugar to the batter. Then instead of muffin, I sprayed my bundt pan, added a little cinnamon sugar to the bottom and poured the batter over it. It’s almost like a snickerdoodle muffin cake, if you want to call it that.
sounds really good i am trying it in the morning by the way u wrote this on my bday so tell people tht its a special recipe in honor of thanks again for the coments
These are verygood. I used a small scoop and put the filling and then more muffin on top. Came out perfect.
Love these great job
I’m excited to try these. Could I use unsalted butter instead of oil?
Lovely recipe love it if just try it and is the boom
These muffins are delicious! I didn’t have any vanilla so I added a teaspoon of orange extract instead. Also added walnuts at the end. This is now my go to recipe for muffins!! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
Made them tonight with whole wheat flour instead of regular all purpose and they came out just as delicious! Thank you so much!
OK. I just made them again. I did 4 with diced apple pieces rolled in brown sugar and cinnamon, 4 with diced banana, and 4 with a little blob of peanut butter. I just tried one…..YUM! This is the best base recipe in the world!!!!!! Thank you so much for this. It’s hard to find a recipe that come out right on Pinterest, but this is a keeper!
These were great! I just made mine with little diced apple pieces. YUMMY!
How long would you cook them as mini muffin?
These were not very good. The batter was extremely thick and they came out tasting more like biscuits than muffins. I baked them for only 17 minutes and they were brown and slightly crispy on the outside. I would not make these again.
I tried the recipe and found that the muffins stuck to the liner ?. Yummy… but bummed
I had the same problem the first time. I added a little more flour and a little less milk and they were much better. I also tried using a little ground oatmeal which was excellent for the apple and blueberry muffins. Just play around adding more dry ingredients and they do turn out.
I tried them and kinda feel like the finished product tastes like a buscuit?
Do you really have to spray the muffin cup papers with cooking spray? I would think that would soak through and make an oily mess. Hope I can get a quick reply as I just found this and am making 6 dozen muffins for church tomorrow. Thanks!
I use coconut oil spray. There wasn’t an oily mess.
Found you on pinterest, thanks for the great recipe!! My daughter and I doubled the recipe and made cranberry orange coconut, banana pecan, blueberry lemon, apple cinnamon oat, and chocolate chip. Love being able to make several kinds at once!
I made a half recipe using a gluten free flour mix I made, substituting 1 Tblsp flax meal with 3 Tbslp of water for the egg, the contents of one vanilla bean for the vanilla extract, and a 1/4 cup of melted butter for the oil. I used a min-muffin pan and baked for 15 minutes @ 375F on the convection setting of my oven. They turned out great! The only modifications I will make next time is to use two vanilla beans (my wife & I love vanilla from beans) and I will try baking the full 20 minutes, depending on how these muffins age over the next couple of days (assuming they last that long)
Thanks for the basic recipe!
Made these tonight! Was real easy to make the batter and filling each of them with different ingredients was great too! It was a big help since all family members like different stuff! I made peanut butter and peach jam muffins, chocolate chip, chocolate chip oatmeal and brown sugar oatmeal muffins. Will definitely make again!
These muffins are wonderful without much addition at all! I needed a quick muffin recipe for breakfast today and sprinkled in some cinnamon. Fluffy and yummy. Thanks!
Made these muffins today and I was really disappointed. They were very dry and not very tasty. I followed the recipe exactly.
I agree, not a fan. Found them dry, heavy and tasteless. I did 4 variations, one with chocolate chips and a oat/ brown sugar mix on them. One with garlic butter and cheese, one with lemon and blueberries and some banana ones. The only flavour was the bit of added flavour. The batter was blah.
I have a questions regarding the all porpoise flour, I don’t live in the USA and I don’t recall ever seeing such flour, do you mean the one that already has baking powder in it or the normal one?
The “normal” kind that has nothing else in it. Hope you like them!
If you wanted to make chocolate muffins (not choc. chip), what changes would you/I have to make?
Skim Milk? It doesn’t seem like that would add enough fat and flavor. Its basically like using water.
I just used your recipe and mixed in dried cherries and white chocolate chips, with some orange zest. Soo yummy! Thanks.
thanks for the recipe..its a keeper
Can i use almond or soy milk instead.tia Lil
Can u use almond or soy milk instead of regular milk. tia
Do you use frozen or fresh fruit? If frozen, do you have to adjust the liquids in the muffin batter?
Great recipe! My kids loved the muffins 🙂 I made blueberries and cranberries. For the blueberries I added some oats on top, it worked great 🙂 Thank you for sharing your recipe and make it simple.
Great recipe! Muffins are fluffy and moist.
I made some with chocolate chips and some with whole frozen strawberries in center with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top.
Thanks for sharing your recipe.
I bet apples and cinnamon sugar would be good. In fact, I might have to give it a try since I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the apples in my kitchen.
Karen,
Great idea! That sounds fantastic!
Tried this idea out today and it was my favorite of the flavors! I just cooled down the apples with some butter, brown sugar, and apple pie spice before putting it all on top. Sooo good!
This looks so good!
On the peanut butter and jelly one, how would you prepare that? How much jelly and how peanut butter? Then should I mix that with the standard recipe? Thanks!
Paige,
To make the peanut butter and jelly muffins, fill your muffin tin with the standard muffin batter. Drop about 1 1/2 teaspoons of PB and 1 1/2 teaspoons of jelly into the center of the raw batter in each muffin cup. Use a toothpick to press the PB & J down so that most of the PB & J is covered in batter. Then, bake as usual. This will create a gooey PB & J center in the muffin.
When I made these, the hot jelly bubbled over on a couple of the muffins. So, I would recommend only filling the muffin tin about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up (less than you would normally fill it) to avoid a mess in your oven.
Hope this helps
In the notes when you said baking soda, did you mean baking powder? There is no mention of baking soda in the recipe.
Monica,
You are correct. This recipe calls for baking powder. I will update my notes. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I hope you enjoy the muffins!
Would I switch the white sugar for brown sugar for the oat one?
Alexandra,
I can see why that is a little bit confusing.
No. I made the standard muffin mix exactly how it is written in the recipe card. Then, I sprinkled a little brown sugar and oats on each muffin.
Hope you like it!
Love the muffin idea, can’t wait to try with grand kids. Also love your site and recipes. Keep up the great work! Looking forward to trying many more. Sue
Thanks Sue! Hope your family loves the muffins!