I love muffins.
I am considering buying a toaster oven JUST to reheat muffins, since the microwave isn’t quite cutting it for me. The last place I worked at had a toaster oven, and reheating muffins in there restored them in seconds to their perfect, warm, crisp-topped, soft-bottomed fresh-out-of-the-oven deliciousness that I love so much.
I love muffins because they are super fast to put together, and don’t require rising time when you suddenly get the urge to have some (rising time being my saving grace deterring me from making homemade cinnamon buns whenever the urge hits). They come in endless flavour/texture combinations, and can be made as healthy or unhealthy (aka cupcakes) as you like. They are quick to grab for breakfast when you’re running out the door late, and if you throw them in your purse frozen they don’t get squished and are perfectly thawed and ready to eat an hour or two later.
After reading that, how can you NOT love muffins??
I have learned to never leave my muffins at room temperature. I now always eat as many I as I want off the cooling racks and then freeze the rest as soon as they are cool. Leaving them on the counter in their container resulted in too many softened, sticky tops, especially on moister muffins with lots of apple or anything in them. Freeze ’em, and reheat ’em for 30 seconds in the microwave and it’s almost like you just made fresh muffins. Almost. With a toaster oven the deception is REALLY good.
This recipe is one of the ones I use ALL the time…it is light and fluffy and always turns out perfectly, whether you make it with raspberries and white chocolate, raspberries and blueberries, blueberries and cranberries, fresh fruit or frozen fruit…you get the picture! And then there are the icing options! Drizzle on some melted white chocolate, plain icing sugar and milk, or whip up a lemon or orange icing by adding a bit of juice to the icing sugar. Because everyone should have icing for breakfast. Really. Especially if your muffin does not contain chocolate chips.
You can also substitute the milk with fruit juice – I have done orange juice as well as one of those SunRype or V8 Fruit/Veggie mixes that taste like fruit juice but have veggie servings in them – I can’t mentally get myself to actually drink a glass of the stuff, but I love mixing them in things in place of just plain fruit juice. I am a heavy water drinker and anything with more than water’s amount of thickness veers me into the unpleasant realm of launched leftovers.
On that appetizing note, here’s the recipe!
- ½ cup margarine or butter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 cup milk (or fruit juice - makes the texture slightly less moist/rich)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 2¼ cups flour (all-purpose or whole wheat, or a combination of the two)
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup raspberries
- ½ cup blueberries
- ½ cup white chocolate chips (totally optional)
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 12 muffins cups with paper liners or spray with cooking spray.
- In small bowl, whisk together melted margarine, milk, vanilla and eggs. In large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Blend wet ingredients into dry ingredients, stirring just until combined. Gently fold in berries and chocolate chips, if using.
- Divide over 12 muffins and bake for 18-20 minutes, until light brown and toothpick comes out clean (tops should feel fairly firm and bounce back when pressed lightly).
- Let sit in muffin pan for 10 minutes before removing to rack to cool completely.
- Once cool, add a drizzle of icing if it floats your boat as much as it does mine :)
I also contributed these to “Jubilicious”, our Ottawa church cookbook, which I believe is still available for purchase if anyone wants one, and I’m so happy to see lots of you Jubilites have tried and loved them too!!
(Adapted from a recipe by Imperial Margarine)
Can you use frozen berries in this recipe? Or would that make it too liquidy?
As long as they are NOT thawed first, frozen berries work just as well as fresh – I have them handy way more often so that’s what I usually use :)
Just made these today (with the white chocolate chips, of course), and they’re sweet and delicious!
Yes, the chocolate chips should be mandatory, shouldn’t they :) Glad you like them!
I’m skeptical of any recipe that has the word ‘best’ included in the title. Very easy to make and very yummy- they turned out a bit more dense and less moist than I would have liked them to be- I don’t really know much about the chemistry of baking so I’m not too sure why this was the case, I followed the recipe using full cream milk and plain flour, could it perhaps be the way I am mixing the ingredients?
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/19220/macadamia+white+chocolate+and+raspberry+muffins#null
This is still my favourite berry muffin recipe, and I recommend you try it when you get the time to, the macadamia oil makes these muffins exceptional.
I’ve never worked with macadamia oil, I’ll have to see if I can find it.
As for the berry muffins, I don’t know a lot about the chemistry of baking either, but I know it’s very important to mix your wet ingredients and dry ingredients really well separately, and then mix them together JUST until combined – overmixing leads to a tougher, denser muffin. I also use 1%or 2% milk – full fat milk would make them a little denser. Hope that helps!
Ok, so i baked these muffins yesterday, and this has to be the best muffin recipe that I have every tried. Usually my muffins don’t rise enough and are dry. but these ones came out looking like your picture, and they do freeze very well. This will definitly be my go to recipe from now on.
Anna, these muffins are my new favourite! This recipe is fantastic! Grace loves them too! Each time I’d give her some, she said “mmmmm” and had a smile on her face. It was so cute! Keep sharing your recipes :)
Yay, I’m so glad!! They really are a great stand-by muffin recipe!
Mmm… I love these muffins. I have never added the white chocolate chips, though, but those would make them even more delicious! And icing too! Your picture is very nice – looks like it comes from one of those food calendars! :)
these are the best muffins EVER!!!
Take a look at this cupcake that looks like poutine… :-) You could serve cupcakes for ‘dinner’…JJ
http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/2009/11/love-canada-hate-poutine.html
Another recipe for me to try!! Can’t wait :)
Hi Anna! I had these the other day, and they were yummy! I am searching for the perfect raspberry yogurt muffin like the one you can buy in cafeterias- any suggestions?? :)
Mmm, I love those too…I haven’t found a perfect one yet though, that rises big and crisp-topped enough for my liking…now you made me want to try some :) Let me know if you find one!
Nice picture Anna. I never thought of adding white chocolate chips to the recipe. Sounds good:)
I made your recipe once or twice and I’d promote these babies to cupcakes. :-)
I had to make them with whole wheat flour and brown sugar to call them muffins. Still delicious. I love raspberries.
Oooh, wait till you see the cupcake recipe I’ll post as soon as I get to making them so I can take a picture….you’ll understand these are squarely in muffin category when it comes to healthiness in comparison :)