There are a lot of people out there who are adamant they don’t bake. They believe that baking is difficult and that they therefore simply don’t have what it takes. Maybe they had one or two bad bakes in the past and they’ve given up as a result! And yes, baking is actually a highly precise science that comes down to chemistry and precise measurements. Get the wrong amount of something, or set the temperature to be slightly wrong, and you’re going to end up with a flat mess!
But while it’s true that baking can be difficult, it is also a mistake to view it as always being difficult. As with anything, the key is to ease yourself into it gently: to start with the easier bakes and only then build up to something more complex.
The good news is that something like a muffin is not only incredibly simple for even the least experienced baker, but is also highly versatile and very tasty. In this post, you’ll see how just ten ingredients (and maybe even fewer!) are all you need in order to make something extremely tasty. And this can then serve as the basis for a whole host of different types of muffin from chocolate chip, to banana, to blueberry.
Read on to see the ten simple things you’ll need to make this one.
1. Eggs
Eggs are going to serve as a binding agent helping lots of your other ingredients to stick together. They will also be adding to the flavor and the consistency, helping to thicken the mix and increase the creaminess.
Typically, you will add quite a few eggs. Your average batch of muffins will likely require about 6 eggs, which is a fair amount of protein!
The good news is that egg is actually also extremely good for you. Not only is it high in protein and amino acids (this is a rare example of a ‘complete’ amino acid), but it’s also rich in things like choline which is very good for the brain. The notion that egg is bad for your health because of cholesterol actually turns out not to be true.
This is not to say that muffins are good for you of course! Only that you shouldn’t shy away from using eggs, and that they can actually help a lot.
Want to make a vegan muffin instead? There are plenty of alternatives to the egg in that case. One of the best is to use chia seeds, which absorb huge amounts of water and expand to several times their size.