<p>Hey parents!</p>
<p>I am right in the middle of finals…soon I’ll be a second-semester Junior! (Can you believe it?)</p>
<p>My Humanities class is having a breakfast potluck on Thursday and I volunteered to bring muffins.</p>
<p>I don’t want to make something out of a box/mix (I LOVE baking from scratch), but I’ve never really made homemade muffins before.</p>
<p>I was thinking either blueberry or cranberry-orange. </p>
<p>Do any of you have any good recipes?</p>
<p>Thank you so much!</p>
<p>don’t underestimate a mix…just add some fresh goodies to it and it tastes (almost) as good as homemade! </p>
<p>Add craisins, or walnuts, or chocolate chips (to the banana muffin mix…yummo) and you’ll be pleased. Plus you’ll have more time to study :-)</p>
<p>You can certainly make homemade (we are a big muffin family!) but honestly if you buy the Krusteaz chocolate chip or blueberry mix they will be delicious! You can even add additional chocolate chips, blueberries or whatever. A suggestion: before popping them in the oven, sprinkle the tops with just a sprinkle of sugar.</p>
<p>Ina Garten’s first cookbook has several muffin recipes. Looks complicated but isn’t. We add extra ripe banana. You don’t NEED the granola, coconut or banana chips. My daughter puts chocolate chips in it. Or you can do the basic recipe (omit the banana) and add nuts/cranberries (dried) or blueberries. Really rich and moist.</p>
<p>HGFM, this is the easiest muffin recipe you can imagine:
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup milk
Just under 2 cups of fresh blueberries (I get them at Trader Joes, usually)
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease/flour muffin tins or use paper liners. (I use liners)
In large bowl, beat butter, eggs, salt and sugar.
Mix flour with baking powder and sift into first mixture, adding milk as you go.
Blend in vanilla.
Add blueberries.
Pour in muffin tins and bake 25 minutes.
Adding a little bit of lemon zest really makes them pop. </p>
<p>I’m not sure how they’ll turn out if you don’t have a flour sifter, but it will probably be ok.
PS: there’s a great recipe for Cranberry orange bread on the back of the Ocean Spray bag.</p>
<p>Here are the top-rated recipes on my second-favorite web site. Scroll down to the 4 1/2 star recipes.</p>
<p>[Allrecipes</a> - Recipe Search](<a href=“http://allrecipes.com/Search/Recipes.aspx?WithTerm=muffins&SearchIn=All&SortBy=Rating&Direction=Descending]Allrecipes”>http://allrecipes.com/Search/Recipes.aspx?WithTerm=muffins&SearchIn=All&SortBy=Rating&Direction=Descending)</p>
<p>Toledo, I don’t even use my cookbooks or recipe box much anymore - just my “recipe box” I have saved on Allrecipes!!! :)</p>
<p>One of my favorite muffin recipes (which I don’t have with me) uses a container of yogurt - vanilla - in it - my kids SWEAR by those muffins!</p>
<p>I actually always had this “dream” to open up a small cafe that would feature muffins and other small baked goods. Lucky for me, someone did it in our area so now I can go and enjoy the concept without all the work!</p>
<p>I agree with toledo that allrecipes is the way to go. I also use cookinglight.com and epicurious. All allow you to do advanced searches, and then you can order the results by ratings. I only use recipes with many reviews and high ratings. Reading the reviews is a good way to get tips on modifying the recipes.</p>
<p>Also (not to get off track), if you use the Allrecipes website, register (easy) for an account then you can keep a “recipe box” of your fav recipes - easy to put a recipe in the box and easy to find your saved recipes.</p>
<p>HGFM, I also sprinkle sugar on top of muffins before they go in the oven. If you can find decorative sugar (larger crystals), even better.</p>
<p>I love to sprinkle a mix of sugar and nutmeg on top on my blueberry muffins. Also if you use the foil muffin wrappers they will look festive.</p>
<p>Thanks all! 
I’m having a fairly light finals week this semester (halfway done…one paper and one exam left), so I’ll do some research today and find a good one. ILoveLA, that does look like my kind of recipe!</p>
<p>Cranberry-orange muffins are wonderful, and the recipe is right on the cranberry bag. I use a little less sugar than recommended. You can bake the same stuff in a loaf pan for cranberry-orange bread.</p>
<p>So I veered a little and made [url=<a href=“http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Chip-Muffins-3/Detail.aspx]these[/url”>http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Chip-Muffins-3/Detail.aspx]these[/url</a>] chocolate chip muffins. I just pulled them out of the oven and they are delicious :)</p>
<p>Thank you all for the help and the suggestions!</p>
<p>Too many yummy recipes, right!??</p>