Mug Muffins- Day 1. Take 1.

So the other day, or should I say night, I was needing a yummy sweet snack and as much as I LOVE to bake I was not about to get my butt off the couch to bake anything. I needed something easy, quick, without making me feel toooo guilty for indulging. I remembered I had these mug cake recipes saved in my computer. Hmmmm...I've made a chocolate one in the past and it just really wasn't that good and I had blueberries in the fridge that were going to go bad if I didn't hurry up and use them. So I did a quick search for a blueberry muffin in a mug (with streusel). Found it! Literally it only took 5 minutes (commercial break) with mixing and microwaving.  This is it and it's from here http://kirbiecravings.com/2013/05/blueberry-muffin-with-streusel-topping-mug-cake.html. I highly suggest you try it!

So today I decided I was going to try to come up with numerous variations to make all kinds of mug muffins. I decided on a base recipe and will take on these different variations on a daily basis (hopefully)...a mug a day.

I wanted to be able to see inside the mug (and for you to see inside too) while things were happening so I went out and bought two clear mugs. They are on the larger side too so hopefully we won't get spillage.

Here are my two mugs and below are the few measuring utensils I will need. (They're my Mickey Mouse ones from Disneyland)

My base recipe is (was) very simple. 4 Tbsp flour, 4 Tbsp sugar, 1/8 tsp baking powder, pinch of salt, 3 Tbsp buttermilk, 2 Tbsp melted coconut oil.

Here's the flour. Regular all purpose flour.

















Flour and sugar now. I always use Organic Evaporated Cane Juice for my sugar. It has a more mellow sweetness to it.

Added the baking powder and pinch of salt.

Here are most of the ingredients. I didn't picture my sugar or flour here because, well, they are in 5 gallon buckets (yes, I do a lot of baking).

Here I added the buttermilk and melted coconut oil.

Stirred it all together.

It got pretty smooth and runny.

Oh yes...this first try was for banana bread mug muffin. So I added about 1/2 of a really ripe banana - just like the ones I use in my 'World Famous Banana Bread'.

Mashed the banana up into the mug.

See. You can see what's going on inside the mug.

Ok, so this is after microwaving it for 4 minutes. I would have taken a picture of it in the microwave but you can't see through the door well enough to see the muffin baking. I first put it on for 1 1/2 minutes but it wasn't done. I kept adding more time until it was no longer gushy on the top.  As you can see, it is very light in color.

Looks kinda funky through the cup too. It turned out kind of giggly and not too appetizing looking.

Dug into it with a spoon and yes, it was gushy. It didn't look done but it also felt rubbery. Not a good sign.

Took a fork and scooped in onto a plate. It's pretty yucky gooey looking. Hubby took a bite. I wish I would've had the camera pointed at him when he did. That would have been all you needed to see this was a major FAIL!

Ok, so onto try number two. I tweaked the first recipe and made it more like the blueberry mug recipe from the other night. I decreased the buttermilk to 2 Tbsp and the oil to 1 Tbsp and left out the banana (just trying to get a good base).

Looks pretty much like the first one but thicker - without the banana.

Microwaved it for 2 minutes this time.

Major difference! In texture, taste, everything. Ok, the banana must have just added too much moisture. Although this one did taste a little salty. Hmmmm. Not as rubbery. Held it's shape. But still not quite right.

Next to the original banana muffin try it was a world apart! And looks way more appetizing.

And on to try number 3!! This time I mixed up the original blueberry mug muffin recipe and just left out the blueberries and streusel topping, since I'm just looking for a base muffin. The batter was even thicker than the other two tries.

Third times a charm (well it doesn't hurt that I already made this one too and I know it's good). This recipe makes a muffin far fluffier than the other two. Granted, it did not stay in 'muffin' form when removed from the mug but that's ok. I'm not usually going to remove it from the mug to eat it  - that's the beauty of a 'mug' recipe. And I'd really rather have my muffin fluffy and not rubbery anyway.

As you can tell from this picture, my husband (the taste tester) liked the third recipe the best too. For my next tries, I will just use this recipe as my base and go from there.

The quest for mug muffin recipes will continue tomorrow when I will try for the right banana bread mug muffin recipe again.






Happy Baking!!
Momma Doll