I don't bake a whole lot. I find it a little intimidating. When you're cooking you often see "adjust seasoning to taste" in recipes. But that's a little tricky to do once something is baked. Needs more salt? Too bad, sucker. Baking is just not quite as forgiving and I require a lot of forgiveness. But upon our return from my mom's house I felt the need to make something as a thank you to Ken's aunt and uncle who always take care of our horse (alright he's really a dog but if you've ever seen him in person you'd go with 'horse' too). On this particular dog sitting stint they also got to rebuild a part of our fence that fell over in some high wind. So you can see why I felt the need to go a little further in my thanks on this occasion. I put together a little basket of stuff and I wanted to add some baked goods. I decided to focused on something simple (or something I couldn't mess up too easily). I found a recipe for 'Basic Muffins' in my trusty Joy of Cooking. As a small aside, I love this cookbook. It is my constant. Daniel has Desmond, Desmond has Penny. I have the Joy of Cooking.
So here's the Basic Muffins with sour cream recipe:
In a large bowl whisk together:
2 c all purpose flour (I think I accidentally used bread flour)
1 T baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/4 t freshly ground nutmeg
In a 2nd bowl whisk together"
2 large eggs
1 c sour cream
2/3 c packed brown sugar
1 stick melted butter (still warm)
1 t vanilla
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix together until just combined. Do not over mix. Batter will not be smooth. Divide among 12 muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
You can add anything to these muffins- hence the name Basic Muffins. I topped mine with a mixture of softened butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. I also thought they would be really great with berries or nuts mixed in.
You can make these with milk or cream in the place of the sour cream. If you do that then take out the 1/2 t of baking soda as well. I really liked that the sour cream gave the batter a lot of body. It made muffins with a nice dome on top. I am a sucker for that kind of thing. Flat=homemade. Dome=fancy.
Also the amount of butter is variable. The recipe says 4 to 8 Tbs, but recommends actually using 8 if the muffins are not all going to be consumed immediately.
So here's the Basic Muffins with sour cream recipe:
In a large bowl whisk together:
2 c all purpose flour (I think I accidentally used bread flour)
1 T baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/4 t freshly ground nutmeg
In a 2nd bowl whisk together"
2 large eggs
1 c sour cream
2/3 c packed brown sugar
1 stick melted butter (still warm)
1 t vanilla
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix together until just combined. Do not over mix. Batter will not be smooth. Divide among 12 muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
You can add anything to these muffins- hence the name Basic Muffins. I topped mine with a mixture of softened butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. I also thought they would be really great with berries or nuts mixed in.
You can make these with milk or cream in the place of the sour cream. If you do that then take out the 1/2 t of baking soda as well. I really liked that the sour cream gave the batter a lot of body. It made muffins with a nice dome on top. I am a sucker for that kind of thing. Flat=homemade. Dome=fancy.
Also the amount of butter is variable. The recipe says 4 to 8 Tbs, but recommends actually using 8 if the muffins are not all going to be consumed immediately.
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