Once you have the ingredients - it is pretty easy. What I usually do, to make things a little quicker in the morning is measure everything out the previous night - and refrigerate what needs to be refrigerated.

Muffin papers, in my opinion, have no use for muffins. They are great for sorting spices, and measuring various foods etc. but for muffins - they are not so good.

I use non-stick muffin pans. I spray them with some kind of vegetable oil - something with little flavor like canola oil. I try not to use cotton seed oil - it may or may not be controled by regular food controls - and in any case, I don't eat cotton. Other oils I don't use because I don't like the name - but "canola" has a nice ring to it. Even though it only means that it comes from Canada (the "can" in "canola" stands for "Canada").

Then I cream the butter. That means beat it until it is light and fluffy. Air is good - and butter is sticky enough to hold a lot of air. So I beat it until it is pretty fluffy.

Then I add the sugar, and beat that until it is incorportated. That means the sugar has dissolved into the butter - visibly are texturally. Feel the butter and see if it feels gritty or not. It should be smoothe.

And then I beat in eggs - one at a time.

Then flavoring: vanilla, rum, maple or almond extract - or zest: lemon, or orange.

Now, from the previous night I have my dry ingredients sifted together. "Sifted together" means that they have been combined and evenly distributed together. You can do that with a whisk - which is my favorite way just because I like whisks. But remember - clumps are yucky - clumps of baking powder taste terrible, and cinnamon must be well whisked in.

And I also have my liquids measured out - often yogurt, maybe mixed with juice or milk. Maybe buttermilk. Whatever.

Then I add liquid and dry into the butter mixture - about a cup at a time alternating - starting and ending with liquid. Again, even distribution is good. And now you have a plain old muffin batter.

I ran my muffin choices for a week by my wife, and suggested that one choice should be "plain" muffins. She said "You can't do that! Whenever I buy a plain muffin, I always take a bite and then then think "What a waste!". So, with that in mind, you may want to take the next step...

And fold in something yummy - chocolate chips, chopped fruit, roasted nuts, whatever...

Folding in, means gently. Don't just squish the air out of the batter - turn it over from bottom to top - until the mixins are well-distributed.

Then - put them in the oven. The oven should be pre-heated. The reason it should be pre-heated is so the temperature will be even. The top will cook at roughly the same speed as the bottom. I recently was cooking, and I decided I did not have time to pre-heat the oven - since my oven lights from the bottom, and it heats up pretty hard trying to get to the proper temperature - I burned the bottoms of my food - and the top was still uncooked.

Start checking the muffins for doneness about 5 to 10 minutes before the recipe time is up. Your oven may not be at the temperature it thinks it is, or the recipe may be wrong. Not all recipes are equal.

I think this is a great way to make muffins, and I must admit that if I find a recipe that makes them differently, I am a bit suspicious. That being said, I have found some great muffin recipes that do make them differently - and I can not always figure out why they are good. Just another example of "Always try them before making them for others".

Here are a few related diatribes:

Recipes - in general
Ingredients, butter, fat, and health