Sweet Tender Muffins

3 cups all purpose Flour
1 TBSP baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 stick plus 2 TBSP butter,. softened
1 cup Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt

Adjust oven rack to lower- middle position and heat overn to 375 degrees (or 450 for mini-muffins, which need higher heat to brown perfectly)

Prepare your preffereed flavoring from the list below(add as directed below). Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

Beat Butter and Sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, then alternating 1/3 at a time, beat in the flour mixture, then the yogurt, until a smooth, thick batter just forms.

Spray 12 cup muffin tins (or four 12 cup mini muffin tins) with vegetable spray or use paper cups. Divide batter evenly among cups. The muffin cups will be full.

Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 12 minutes for the mini- muffins and about 25 minutes for the regular ones. Set pan(s) on wire rack to cool slightly, remove muffins and continue to cool or serve,

3 Flavor Options

Lemon- poppy seed Muffins: Add 3 TBSP poppy seed and 1 TBSP lemon zest to the dry ingredients. Spoon half the batter into each muffin cup. Dipping a spoon in water as necessary, make a well in each cup of batter. Using a generous 1/4 cup of store bought lemon curd, form a heaping teaspoon of lemon curd in each well ( or 1/4 tsp. in the mini pans). Top with remaining batter. These work best in the regular muffin pans.

Date- Walnut Muffins: Add 1 cup each of chopped dates and toasted walnuts to dry ingredients, and add 2 tsp. vanilla to the eggs.

Chocolate chip- cherry muffins: Add 1 cup each of coarsely chopped dried cherries and miniature chocolate chips to the dry ingredients, and add 1/2 tsp. Almond extract to the eggs.

( I made the chocolate chip muffins, but only had regular chocolate chips and no cherries, so I just added about 1.5 cups of the chips I had and they tasted great!)

Found recipe in Cook Smart by Pam Anderson