A naturally sweetened master muffin recipe with endless options! Use this one recipe to make all kinds of muffins, with easy, healthy ingredients. Choose from butter, coconut oil, applesauce, Greek yogurt for your “fat”, then sweeten the muffins with honey or maple syrup. Finish with any combination of add-ins you’re in the mood for!
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Last month I was looking for a master muffin recipe to use in my Baking Basics class at our co-op. I had plans to develop one based on the countless muffins I’ve baked over the years, but did not have time to put it together before class.
Instead, I grabbed a master muffin recipe from a popular, trustworthy baking site and grabbed all the ingredients we would need to bake. The muffins were delicious, it’s true. But they were much more like cupcakes than the muffins I usually bake. They were loaded with butter and sugar, where my preference is to sweeten with natural sweeteners as much as possible, and often to use healthy subs and ingredients like applesauce, yogurt, etc.
I promised my class I would add to their recipe notebooks with another muffin option the following week. (You know, in case a group of kids wanted a less-cupcake-like version).
We eat muffins regularly for breakfast, lunch, and snacks because they’re so portable, easy, and the variations are endless. This master muffin recipe makes it even easier to play around with different flavor combinations and allows you to use the ingredients you have on hand.
Naturally Sweetened Master Muffin Recipe
The base of this recipe is a mix of flour and old-fashioned oats. You could also substitute a 1:1 gluten-free flour to make the muffins gluten-free.
After the dry base of the muffin mix, you have a few different options. Each option will yield a slightly different taste to your muffins, so have fun and try several variations.
For the “fat”, you can use butter, coconut oil, applesauce, or Greek yogurt. Pick honey or maple syrup as a liquid natural sweetener. Keep the vanilla extract for a traditional flavor, or substitute another extract like almond, lemon, orange, etc.
Once your batter is mixed together, you can gently stir in your additions. I provide several ideas in the recipe like nuts, seeds, dried fruit, chocolate, and more. You can even divide the batter at this point and make a few different combinations in one pan!
A personal favorite muffin combination of mine is orange, sliced almonds, and almond extract. So good.
I also highly recommend parchment muffin liners for the easiest clean up ever. I try to always have them on hand, and miss them whenever I’m out and have to wash my muffin pans out.
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Naturally Sweetened Master Muffin Recipe
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- Author: Lisa @ This Pilgrim Life
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 18 minutes
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: 12 muffins 1x
Description
A naturally sweetened muffin recipe with endless options! Use this one recipe to make all kinds of muffins, with easy, healthy ingredients. Choose from butter, coconut oil, or applesauce for your “fat”, then sweeten the muffins with honey or maple syrup. Finish with any combination of add-ins you’re in the mood for!
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup old-fashioned oats
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter/coconut oil/applesauce/Greek yogurt (pick one)
- 1/3 cup honey or maple syrup
- 1 cup milk or whey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract*
- 1 1/2 cup add-ins**
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt). Stir to incorporate. In a large liquid measuring cup or another mixing bowl, stir together the wet ingredients until well-blended.
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir until almost no streaks of flour remain. Dump in whatever add-ins you are using, then stir until everything is evenly distributed and no streaks of flour remain. (If the mixture is too wet, you can add 2-4 tablespoons of flour to the batter. You want the batter to be wetter than bread dough, but not runny).
- Grease a standard 12-cup muffin pan, or add parchment muffin cups. Fill each muffin cup with the batter, until each cup has the same amount. (Optional) Top the muffins with turbinado or demerera sugar before baking.
- Bake in preheated oven for 18 minutes, or until the muffin tops spring back when gently pressed, and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.
Notes
*vanilla extract is the most all-purpose extract to use in baked goods, but you can also sub for a different extract to try other flavor combinations
**Add-In Ideas:
- nuts & seeds (chopped walnuts or pecans, sliced almonds, sunflower seeds, etc)
- dried fruit (raisins, dried blueberries, dates, etc)
- fresh fruit (chopped apples, mashed banana, blueberries, diced strawberries, etc)
- chocolate (dark, semi-sweet, white)
Favorite Combos:
- banana & walnut (w/ honey and coconut oil)
- blueberry & white chocolate (w/ maple syrup and applesauce)
- mandarin orange & almond (w/ almond extract, orange zest, butter, and maple syrup)
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