Well, me making muffins today was inspired by  shadarack who sent me a note asking if I had any good basic muffin recipes that would be easy to modify... So I went digging a little and broke out ye olde school baking book (Which so far I've never had a recipe from it fail) and found they had a perfect example of a generic, plain muffin that was designed around the idea of modifying. Really, I don't think you'd actually want to eat just the plain muffin... I guess you could...

Regardless of that, always one to enjoy tampering! I went and turned that into Cinnamon Spice Muffins! Now just a bit of a forewarning, if your idea of a muffin is something you buy at the grocery store and find them to be on the sweet side you might be in for a surprise with these muffins. They are not sweet at all, but they are a hearty muffin that actually is worthy to be called a quick breakfast pick me up (And not a cupcake like some of those sweet ones often are.) Given the low amount of sugar actually used you could probably get away with a sugar substitute for those needing to cut out sugars.

Anyway, onto the recipe good and proper! If anyone wants to know the plain muffin let me know and I can give the plain recipe to you to play with.

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The Muffin, something that when we buy it at most stores is more like a cupcake than a hearty breakfast item like they used to be at a time. This muffin though is not that sweet, nor is it loaded in fats. It’s fairly hearty, a nice texture, and takes well to jellies, james, or a little butter (Or just heat it for fifteen in the microwave and enjoy too!)

I did top these with a little sugar (I like it) but that is very much optional. This recipe lends itself easily to lots of variation and is quite flexible to other ingredients.

We’ll be using “The Muffin Method” to make these as well. This involves combining Wet to Dry and barely mixing, then baking.

This recipe makes about a dozen medium sized muffins.

Dry Goods: (Sift all together)
10 oz All-purpose Flour
3 Oz Sugar
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/8 Tsp salt
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Cloves
Pinch Grated Nutmeg

Wet Goods: (Combine together)
1 egg, Beaten
1 cup whole milk
3 oz melted butter

Sift together all the dry good then pour the wet goods on top. Using a spatula gently mix and fold together the ingredients until just barely together. The batter will still be lumpy but that is okay. If you mix it to much you’ll develop the gluten of the flour and make for a very craggy interior and tough muffin.

Let the batter rest for about ten minutes to allow the flour to hydrate.

Baking:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Grease muffin tins (Or use paper cups if you prefer) with cooking spray.

Using a disher scoop muffin batter so it is about half to two-thirds filling each muffin tin.

Sprinkle with coarse sugar if desired for a crunchy and shiny top.

Bake for about twenty to twenty-five minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean.

Let cool for ten minutes in the pan, turn out onto a tea towel and let finish cooling top down.

Enjoy your muffins!