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Whole-Wheat Muffin Recipe

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4.84 from 36 votes
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Soaking Time 8 hours
Total Time 8 hours 20 minutes
Yield 8 muffins
Category Breakfast
Cuisine American
Author Lauren Grant

Description

You get all of the benefits of whole wheat flour (flavor and nutrition) and none of the expected drawbacks (dry, dense or crumbly).

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Ingredients

  • 1 ¼ cups (150 grams) + 2 tablespoons (15g) whole-wheat flour, divided
  • 1 cup (252g) buttermilk
  • 2 tablespoons (20g) cornstarch*
  • 1 ¼ teaspoon (5g) baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¾ teaspoons (2g) ground cinnamon, optional
  • ¼ teaspoon (2g) kosher salt
  • ⅓ cup (71g) packed light brown sugar
  • ¼ cup (56g) olive oil
  • 1 (50g) large egg
  • 1 tablespoon (15g) vanilla extract
  • Turbinado sugar also called sugar in the raw, for sprinkling on top

Instructions

  • For the soaker, combine 1 ¼ cups (150g) flour and buttermilk. Stir to combine then cover with plastic or a tight fitting lid and refrigerate overnight (8–10 hours).
    sticky dough mass in a clear glassbowl
  • Heat oven to 425ºF (218ºC). Thoroughly coat muffin tin with nonstick spray.
  • Whisk together remaining 2 tablespoons flour, starch, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
    flour and spices in a small glass bowl
  • In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, oil, egg and vanilla until smooth and pale and most of the sugar has dissolve; 1 minute
    caramel-colored liquid in a glass bowl with a whisk
  • Add soaker to sugar-oil mixture.
  • Whisk soaker into sugar mixture until smooth.
    bubbly caramel-colored batter in a large glass bowl with a whisk
  • Stir in starch mixture to combine.
    caramel-colored batter in a large glass bowl with a whisk
  • Scoop batter by ⅓ cup into muffin tins top with turbinado sugar.
    batter in muffin wells in a muffin tin and topped with sugar
  • Bake 5 minutes then turn oven down to 400ºF (204ºC) and continue baking until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out with few crumbs attached, 8–10 minutes more, rotating muffin tin halfway through baking. (Total bake time 13-15 minutes.)
    8 baked muffins in a 12-tin muffin pan
  • Let muffins cool in muffin tin on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove muffins from muffin tin and let cool 5 minutes longer. Serve.

Equipment

muffin tin
whisk
large mixing bowl

Notes

Store muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. After a day or so, the turbinado sugar on the top of the muffins will start to weep—it’s safe to eat, but if you’re making these ahead and plan to serve them a day after baking, skip the sugar topping and instead serve with some honey or honey butter.
If you can’t have corn, you can try arrowroot starch. We have not tested this (yet) but it should work fine.
This recipe makes 8 muffins. We recommend alternating the wells you fill with batter, instead of filling 8 wells side-by-side and leaving 4 empty on the opposite end. Alternating allows heat to more evenly circulate amongst the wells and creates taller, domed muffins. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1muffinCalories: 190kcalCarbohydrates: 27gProtein: 5gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 115mgFiber: 3gSugar: 10g
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