Muffin base recipe

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 250ml milk
• 125ml vegetable oil
• 200g sugar
• 400g plain flour sieved
• 4tsp baking powder
• 1tsp salt
• flavour to taste

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6 and prepare about 12 muffin cases (normally I use the giant cases) in trays, and grease the tray around each of the muffin receptacles: it'll help if you create monster muffins that decide to form an ad-hoc MuffinNetwork™.

It is important to keep the wet and dry separate to the last minute. Mix the dry ingredients well in a bowl.  In a jug (1 litre) preferably, or another bowl, mix the wet ingredients well.  Add flavours to the relevant container: bananas are tricky and can go in either, but I tend to blend some banana in a little of the milk/oil and add it to the wet, while using some chopped banana in the dry for texture.

Make a bowl in the dry ingredients and add a bit of the wet to the dry, folding in and ensure to keep the wet ingredients in their container mixed throughout; the oil will tend to separate.  Adding more wet, some at a time, the mixture should form a smooth batter, which is easy to work - I find that folding air into the mixture adds lightness.  Eventually it is pour-able, or very nearly, depending on your flavourings.

Share out the mixture evenly in the muffin cases, I tend to leave at least 1cm from the top of the cases.  Put the trays in the oven for about 15 minutes and then check them regularly.  They should have risen, and forming dome-tops that may split.  When deciding if they're ready, pick a volunteer at random and run him through with something like a knife or a long toothpick: if it comes out 'clean' they're ready.

As soon as possible, get the muffins out of the trays and onto airers.  Eat when cool.

Tips

• Change the level of wet ingredients, or lower the oven temp and increase the time if they come out heavier than you'd like.
• You can use self-raising flour, but if you do it's difficult to 'play' trying to get them to rise to your liking.
• Play with levels of things: increasing the oil amount will make them gooier, like those Starbucks ones.
• When using chocolate chunks, you might like to add these when the batter is in the muffin cases: for one it'll ensure they don't all end up in a few cases.
• I tend to always add a little nutmeg and cinnamon to mixtures to give it a nice warm flavour.
• Try dusting the mixture in the cases with cinnamon, as well as mixing in.