Basic muffins, with variations

By Anonymous -
Gwen posted this recipe a while back I think, with some of the variations she used. I'm going to post it again, with the two variations we made today.

from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything

3 Tbsp. melted butter or canola or other neutral oil, plus some for greasing the muffin tin
2 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. sugar, or to taste
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
1 c. milk, plus more if needed

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a standard 12-compartment muffin tin.
Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat together the egg, milk and butter or oil in another bolw. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour the wet ingredients into it. Using a large spoon or rubber spatula, combine the ingredients swiftly, stirring and folding rather than beating, and stop as soon as all the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter should be lumpy, not smooth, and thick but quite moist.
Spoon into muffin tins. Bake 20-30 minutes until nicely browned and a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes, before taking them out of the tin.

Here are two variations I used today:

Cranberry muffins:
Add 1 tsp. cinnamon to the dry ingredients, increase sugar to 1 cup. Stir 1 c. cranberries (frozen works, do no defrost before using) into the batter at the last minute. Good with 1 Tbsp. minced orange zest added to the batter.

Coffee cake muffins:
Mix together 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 c. finely chopped walnuts, pecans or cashews, and 2 Tbsp. extra melted butter. Stir have this mixture into the original batter with the wet ingredients, and sprinkle the rest on top before baking.

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