Ahhhh! Muffins! Nothing better than a hot-out-of-the-oven muffin with a large crunchy top and bouncy soft inside! These are what we call in the industry "Rustic" or "Home-style" muffins. I personally just call them "Muffins" as I believe all muffins should be like this. Not overly sweet, not dense, cakey or baked inside those weird paper thingies. If those are the muffins you like, sorry, this isn't the recipe for you.
I call them "Any-way-you-like-it" Muffins because they are exactly that. I basic blueprint, if you will, as a base for any muffin you'd like.
You want chocolate chip muffins? You got it!
You want blueberry muffins? No problem!
You want 'faux' bacon, caramelized pecan, peanut butter brittle muffins? ...
Uhhhh...not sure what crazy master chef reality show you think you're on, but you can call me Shania Twain 'cause "That don't impress me much!"...but yes, you can do that too.
*NOTE ON EGG REPLACER* I use VeganEgg from Follow Your Heart
Mix 2 tbsp 'egg' mix with ½ cup ICE water.
This can be found in many health food stores such as Herbs and Nutrition in Toronto.
However, if you don't want to use this one, the following are other options you can use. The texture and structure may alter slightly, but it should still turn out fine!
1 egg replacer equivalent:
BANANA: ½ cup pureed banana
PUMPKIN: ½ cup cooked pureed pumpkin (great for spiced muffins!)
FLAX: 1tbsp ground Flaxseed + 3 tbsp water. Mix well and let sit for 5 min. until 'thick'.
On to the recipe!
INGREDIENTS:
1 Egg Replacer of choice *See NOTE ON EGG REPLACER above.
½ cup Vegetable Oil of choice
¾ cup Plant-based Milk of choice
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Cane Sugar or Redpath White Sugar
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
3 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt
½ tsp Cinnamon
From here, you can add in any ingredients you like to personalize your muffin! Check out these options:
Chocolate Chip
1 cup Chocolate Chips (classic!). Decorate top with a little sugar sprinkled over.
Very Berry
1 cup Blueberries or any berry you like (always best to use frozen), a little lemon zest, Decorated top with rolled oats.
Nutty Banana
½ cup crushed Walnuts + ½ cup Banana chunks, top with walnut bits.
Morning Glory
Add ¼ cup more vegetable oil to wet ingredients, ½ cup shredded carrot, ¼ cup shredded coconut, ¼ cup mix of raisins and nuts of choice. Decorate top with shredded coconut.
And so on!
INSTRUCTIONS:
*Pre-heat oven to 425°F before making batter.
*NOTE: Once you have the mix ready, you will need to scoop them into the pre-greased molds and they will have to go straight into the oven. No dilly-dallying!
1. In one bowl (make sure one bowl is bigger than the other to mix wet and dry together after), whisk 'egg', milk, oil, sugar and vanilla until smooth.
2. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and personalized ingredients of choice.
3. Lightly grease muffin tins with vegan butter or any other vegetable oil. This will just ensure your muffins don't get stuck and break apart.
4. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together. This part is IMPORTANT so PAY ATTENTION: use a wooden spoon or a spatula and gently stir ingredients until they are just mixed together. You never want to over-mix muffin batter and don't even try to get the lumpy bits smooth. If it's big balls of flour, yes give it a little nudge and break it apart, but don't try to make it smooth. That makes for bad muffins! You also want to make sure you have a smooth mix. If it's a little tough to mix, add a little more milk. If it's looking too loose, add extra flour 1 tbsp at a time.
5. Time to scoop! Here's a pro tip: use an ice cream scoop. This makes scooping easy and less messy. And if you're looking for the nice big muffin top we talked about, scoop enough so that the batter is about 2 cm or a finger width above the pan. Like a little mound.
6. Immediately place in oven and and turn the temperature down to 350°F RIGHT AWAY. Why? Because I said so!! Joking. Actually this will give you that nice crunchy muffin top you want while keeping the inside soft.
7. Bake for 20 min or until the inside is done. You can test this with a bakers 'needle' or any thin metal object like a sharp knife. It's done when it comes out clean or with a few crumbs on it. You could always use a raw spaghetti stick, but sometimes that can break off and then you have a random uncooked noodle in your muffin. Weird!
Take out, and enjoy!
