Muffin Bliss

I am so happy with my cappuccino mix, that I thought I would continue with this trend. I spent a couple hours searching for various mix ideas to try. Bring them on!

I have been making a lot of muffins lately partly because my son doesn't want to eat sweat breads (i.e. banana bread) as a snack, but he’ll eat a muffin… well, a chocolate muffin. I have hopes that he will expand his eating list, but for now I’ll add cocoa. I have posted a recipe for chocolate banana muffins before. Last night I made a similar muffin with the addition of peanut butter and oatmeal – SO good. I think this one is better than the last and I have reason to believe the kids feel the same since it was a hit for breakfast AND snack time. Anyway, while I was making the muffins I decided to also make a mix that will make muffin making much faster in the future.

The big benefit of the boxed ready-packed muffin mixes is that they take no time to make and only need a couple of wet ingredients. But there is a downside to the mixes and that is added ingredients meant to increase the shelf life of the mix while contributing to the obesity rate of the people consuming them (or is that a perk?). There can’t possibly be a good thing that comes from consuming ingredients that you can’t pronounce. So convenience is a good thing and saving money and time (which are synonymous) is a great thing.

I found a basic recipe at TasteofHome.com but because I am me I have to change it. Which basically means that I take out ½ of the flour to substitute wheat flour and add wheat germ and flax seeds to give it that added nutrition without the family knowing (adding these extra ingredients is one of the reasons why it takes me so long to make stuff). My recipe:

   Muffin Mix

4 cups all-purpose/bread flour

4 cups wheat flour

3 cup sugar

1/3 cup baking powder

1 tablespoon salt

1/4 cup ground flax seed

1/4 cup Wheat Germ 

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Store in an airtight container for up to 6 months. Yield: 4 batches (10 cups).

Yes, this is a picture of the inside of my cabinet.
I LOVE these containers and my Brother Label Maker.

To Make Combine:

2 ½ Cups of Mix

¼ cup oil or butter

2 egg

1 cup milk

1 tsp Vanilla

¼ cup apple sauce (optional)

1/3 cup yogurt (optional)

1/4 tsp molasses (if you prefer brown sugar rather than white in a recipe)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners or use shortening/oil so muffins don’t stick. Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix until fully blended.  Bake 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool 5-10 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before you cover them or transfer to a freezer ziplock bag to freeze. 

You can add any variation of ingredients to the mix to make it the kind of muffins you want. For example, to make the Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins I mentioned earlier all I had to do was add:

1 cup mashed banana (about 3 bananas)
6 tbsp. creamy peanut butter

¼ c baking cocoa

1 cup old-fashioned oats

A couple chocolate chips for the top of each muffin

Mix it up. Pop it in the oven. Gotta love it!