Aren’t homemade muffins the best? When you make your own, you have control over the ingredients. Fill your muffin batter with healthful whole grains, like the ones in this recipe.

Then do the following (all of which work with any kind of muffin)…

Easy release: Muffins often stick to their pans (no matter how much you pre-grease). They need to cool sufficiently before removal—otherwise, you may end up with a handful of crumbs. But you don’t want them to sit too long in the pan. If you do that, your muffin bottoms become soggy. Instead, when you take the muffins out of the oven, put the pan on a wire rack and let the muffins sit there for 10 minutes. Then angle the baking pan so that the muffins can gently fall out (you may have to loosen some sides slightly with a butter knife) and carefully place them on the rack. When muffins cool this way, they are less likely to fall apart.

Wet towel method: If the muffins remain stuck to the pan after the 10-minute cooling period, spread a wet towel on your work surface. Then put the still-warm muffin pan on the wet towel for two minutes. You should be able to pop out the muffins without any problem.

Shoehorn helper: A clean shoehorn can help you scoop those muffins out of the baking pan easily.

Buttermilk replacement: We love using buttermilk in most of our baking (see recipe above). It creates a fluffy, moist texture. But buttermilk is often only available in the quart size, and we usually don’t need all that. Homemade soured milk to the rescue! Here’s what to do: Pour out one scant cup of whole milk (or 2%), and stir in one tablespoon of white vinegar. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Your milk should look slightly curdled and ready to make delicious muffins (or biscuits…or quick bread).

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