Brown Sugar Muffins

These muffins are another breakfast favorite of mine. I like them because they are so simple and delicious. The flavor is just plain enough to be able to serve them with a lot of different things or you could try adding things to the recipe like apples or other fruits. However, the recipe is a little tricky if you don't mix it properly. Be sure to use a good quality electric mixer to thoroughly cream together the sugars and the shortening. Add the egg, mix well. Add the vanilla, mix well. Finally add the milk, mix well, and then add the dry ingredients. If you don't get the shortening and sugars creamed properly and the other wet ingredients mixed in the milk and the shortening will react funny and become a strange lumpy type mixture--you know the old addage that oil and milk don't mix, well that's the idea. It will still mix a little funny when you add the milk but as you mix in the dry ingredients it should work out okay. (P.S. Mine never look like the ones in that picture. That's just the image that came with the recipe when I got it. Mine are typically a lot darker and look a little denser than those ones. Maybe I use darker brown sugar than she did or something like that but either way they're tasty. Especially right out of the oven with butter on them! Mmmm! You should never blog hungry I've decided...)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and brown sugar. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture just until combined. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 400 degrees F for 16-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.