Standard Muffin Recipe – A plain muffin batter is added to a muffin tin, then you can add your favorite flavors (fruit, nuts, chocolate, etc.) to each muffin. Great for kids and guests because everyone gets to choose the type of muffin they want.
About a year ago, I noticed several recipes trending on Pinterest involving pancake batter and muffin tins. Some people called them puffins, some people called them individual baked pancakes. The general idea was to take pancake batter and pour it into a muffin tin, then top the batter with your favorite flavors (fruits, nuts, chocolate chips, oats, etc.) and bake it. I thought it was a great idea, so I tried it. Unfortunately, I didn’t really like it. The thing about pancake batter is, it’s not very good on its own. That’s probably why most people douse their pancakes in lots of maple syrup. Even when I added syrup to the baked pancakes, or whatever you want to call them, they still weren’t my favorite.
But, I still really liked the idea of being able to use a bunch of different flavors/toppings to add to one standard batter. The batter just needed to taste better.  So why not use the muffin tin for it’s actual purpose, making muffins!  Muffin batter is lighter and sweeter; and you can still add all of your favorite additional ingredients to it.
This is great for house guests, kids, and picky eaters because everyone can choose their favorite flavor of muffin to make. It’s also a great way to get creative in the kitchen. I tried a lot of different flavor combinations and some of the ones that sounded a little strange ended up being great, like dried cranberry and sweetened coconut.
All you do is follow the standard muffin recipe below, fill a muffin tin with the batter, and top with your favorite muffin flavors/additions.  Use a toothpick to push the additional ingredients down into the batter and swirl them around a bit. This way the additional ingredients are spread throughout the muffin and don’t just sit on top of it, as you can see in the blueberry muffin pictured on the right. Then, just bake and cool the muffins like any other muffin recipe. 
The amount of additional ingredients you add is up to you, if you like lots of chocolate chips in your muffins, then add lots of chocolate chips. I ended up using about a tablespoon of each additional ingredient.
I experimented with lots of different flavor additions for this standard muffin recipe. Here are a few that I tried: blueberry (pictured on the right), banana nut, chocolate chip, dried cranberry & sweetened coconut, mango & sweetened coconut, Peanut butter & jelly, and brown sugar & oats.
This brown sugar and oats muffin was another one of my favorites. The brown sugar addition really sweetened it up.
I do have a suggestion for your flavor additions. If you are adding an ingredient that is not very sweet, like blueberries, you may want to roll that ingredient around in a little sugar before you add it to the batter.
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Standard Muffin Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup skim milk, or your preferred milk/milk alternative
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup canola or vegetable oil
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place muffin liners in a muffin tin and spray with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine.
- In another bowl, add the sugar, milk, vanilla, egg, and oil. Whisk to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined; batter should be lumpy. Do not over mix.
- Fill the muffin liners ¾ of the way up.
- Add your favorite muffin flavors/additions (fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, oats, etc.). Take a toothpick and push the additional ingredients down into the batter and swirl them around a little.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Found you on pinterest, thanks for the great recipe!! My daughter and I doubled the recipe and made cranberry orange coconut, banana pecan, blueberry lemon, apple cinnamon oat, and chocolate chip. Love being able to make several kinds at once!
I made a half recipe using a gluten free flour mix I made, substituting 1 Tblsp flax meal with 3 Tbslp of water for the egg, the contents of one vanilla bean for the vanilla extract, and a 1/4 cup of melted butter for the oil. I used a min-muffin pan and baked for 15 minutes @ 375F on the convection setting of my oven. They turned out great! The only modifications I will make next time is to use two vanilla beans (my wife & I love vanilla from beans) and I will try baking the full 20 minutes, depending on how these muffins age over the next couple of days (assuming they last that long)
Thanks for the basic recipe!
Made these tonight! Was real easy to make the batter and filling each of them with different ingredients was great too! It was a big help since all family members like different stuff! I made peanut butter and peach jam muffins, chocolate chip, chocolate chip oatmeal and brown sugar oatmeal muffins. Will definitely make again!
These muffins are wonderful without much addition at all! I needed a quick muffin recipe for breakfast today and sprinkled in some cinnamon. Fluffy and yummy. Thanks!
Made these muffins today and I was really disappointed. They were very dry and not very tasty. I followed the recipe exactly.
I agree, not a fan. Found them dry, heavy and tasteless. I did 4 variations, one with chocolate chips and a oat/ brown sugar mix on them. One with garlic butter and cheese, one with lemon and blueberries and some banana ones. The only flavour was the bit of added flavour. The batter was blah.
I have a questions regarding the all porpoise flour, I don’t live in the USA and I don’t recall ever seeing such flour, do you mean the one that already has baking powder in it or the normal one?
The “normal” kind that has nothing else in it. Hope you like them!
If you wanted to make chocolate muffins (not choc. chip), what changes would you/I have to make?
Skim Milk? It doesn’t seem like that would add enough fat and flavor. Its basically like using water.
I just used your recipe and mixed in dried cherries and white chocolate chips, with some orange zest. Soo yummy! Thanks.
thanks for the recipe..its a keeper
Can i use almond or soy milk instead.tia Lil
Can u use almond or soy milk instead of regular milk. tia
Do you use frozen or fresh fruit? If frozen, do you have to adjust the liquids in the muffin batter?
Great recipe! My kids loved the muffins 🙂 I made blueberries and cranberries. For the blueberries I added some oats on top, it worked great 🙂 Thank you for sharing your recipe and make it simple.
Great recipe! Muffins are fluffy and moist.
I made some with chocolate chips and some with whole frozen strawberries in center with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top.
Thanks for sharing your recipe.
I bet apples and cinnamon sugar would be good. In fact, I might have to give it a try since I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the apples in my kitchen.
Karen,
Great idea! That sounds fantastic!
Tried this idea out today and it was my favorite of the flavors! I just cooled down the apples with some butter, brown sugar, and apple pie spice before putting it all on top. Sooo good!
This looks so good!
On the peanut butter and jelly one, how would you prepare that? How much jelly and how peanut butter? Then should I mix that with the standard recipe? Thanks!
Paige,
To make the peanut butter and jelly muffins, fill your muffin tin with the standard muffin batter. Drop about 1 1/2 teaspoons of PB and 1 1/2 teaspoons of jelly into the center of the raw batter in each muffin cup. Use a toothpick to press the PB & J down so that most of the PB & J is covered in batter. Then, bake as usual. This will create a gooey PB & J center in the muffin.
When I made these, the hot jelly bubbled over on a couple of the muffins. So, I would recommend only filling the muffin tin about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up (less than you would normally fill it) to avoid a mess in your oven.
Hope this helps
In the notes when you said baking soda, did you mean baking powder? There is no mention of baking soda in the recipe.
Monica,
You are correct. This recipe calls for baking powder. I will update my notes. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I hope you enjoy the muffins!
Would I switch the white sugar for brown sugar for the oat one?
Alexandra,
I can see why that is a little bit confusing.
No. I made the standard muffin mix exactly how it is written in the recipe card. Then, I sprinkled a little brown sugar and oats on each muffin.
Hope you like it!
Love the muffin idea, can’t wait to try with grand kids. Also love your site and recipes. Keep up the great work! Looking forward to trying many more. Sue
Thanks Sue! Hope your family loves the muffins!