Infinite varieties of muffins...

I'm just going to throw this out there. I love muffins. It seems entirely reasonable that muffins could be their own food group. They're pretty much perfect. In addition to being delicious, muffins supplied a Trader Joes patron with this, one of the worst pick up lines I have ever heard (this happened to a friend, innocently shopping):

Friend: *perusing the bread area*
Random Dude: *loitering in bread area* "Hey... thats a nice sweater"
Friend: *looks down at total normal, slightly old sweater* "ummm... thanks"
Random Dude: "Hey... do you like muffins?"
Friend: "ummm... kind of I guess"
Random Dude: "what about STUD muffins??"
Friend: *walks away. only to pass by again later and see him trying it on someone else!*

thats out of nowhere, and its not even my story. but, I love that guy.


At any rate... I have recently acquired a very excellent basic muffin recipe (from the same source as my Mexican Wedding cookies. It is (as the title promised) infinitely adaptable... below you can see blueberry lemon. Yesterday we made cinnamon chocolate chip (yum). The only limit is your imagination!


Muffins:

1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup blueberries/cranberries/choc chips/chopped apple/nuts etc
optional: lemon zest, orange zest, cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla, etc

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease cups of muffin pan.

In a large bowl, beat egg and then stir in the milk and oil. If you want to add vanilla (like for chocolate chip muffins) do it in here.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add this mixture to the large bowl, stirring just until blended (doesn't need to be entirely smooth). Fold in fillings. Divide between 12 muffin pan spaces.

Bake at 400 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes until golden brown on top and pulling away from edge. Remove from muffin tin immediately. Enjoy!!