You can make muffins from scratch; it really isn’t very hard. First, you want to read your recipe and become familiar with it even before you start. You have no idea how many people just jump in and start, not realizing what is involved.
Next, you want to grab ALL the ingredients and bakeware you need for the recipe. The worse thing that can happen is you are halfway into the recipe, and you don’t have an ingredient or not enough of one.
I also prefer to use high-quality ingredients that will ensure a good flavor and texture. This doesn’t mean they have to be expensive (use butter instead of margarine is an example).
Much of the foundation for a good muffin includes butter, sugar, eggs, and milk (or buttermilk), but see what your recipe requires. That also includes “add-ins”, such as chocolate chips, nuts and/or dried fruit.
Weigh your ingredients. Many recipes now include the metric version. For best results when making muffins, always weigh your dry ingredients with a kitchen scale instead of measuring them by volume (measuring cups). This is because different brands of flour have different densities. Also, many home bakers just stick in their measuring cups. If you just stick your measuring cup in the dry ingredients, you actually can be adding a lot more of that ingredient (especially flour), leading to dry muffins (hockey pucks). Weighing your ingredients will ensure more accurate results every time (see my video on weighing ingredients here). But if you don’t want to use a scale, at least take a whisk to your flour and fluff it up. Then you a spoon and add to the measuring cup and then level it off with a straight edge (the back of a knife works well).
Mix your dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately before combining them together.
To make sure that your muffin batter has the right consistency, it’s important to mix the dry ingredients together separately (flour, leavening agents like baking powder/baking soda) before adding any liquid/wet ingredients.
Finally, don’t OVERMIX. Most people use a mixer (hand and/or stand). This will definitely formulate gluten, which is the evil of any muffin batter. You just want to mix, using a spatula until mixed (some flour showing is totally fine), it doesn’t have to be smooth.
Then without saying, make sure your oven has been preheated before you stick them in the oven, and DO NOT PEAK! Every time you open and shut the oven door you lose heat, which is what gives wonderful rise to your baked goods.
Now get out there and make some muffins.