Hodgson Mill muffin mix: the 99 cent best kept secret

99 cents can't get you much these days.

In the 1960s it could buy you two and a half oven ready turkeys, 20 lbs of potatoes, 24 sugared donuts, 20 green peppers, or 4 fast food hamburgers. Suddenly, BK's 99 cent menu doesn't seem so generous.

Today, in most places, it can't even get you a bottle of water, a cup of coffee, or a pack of gum. But, believe it or not, there is something costing less than $1 that will last you longer than a couple of days. I'm referring, of course, to Hodgson Mill's whole wheat muffin mix. Doesn't ring a bell? Perhaps you might be a little more familiar with Jiffy corn muffin mix, Hodgson Mill's better-known, easier-to-pronounce, distantly related cousin. (I call them cousins because they both come in small packaging that hasn't been redesigned since the 70s.)

You've probably walked past it a million times at the supermarket: It's one of those tiny boxes that gets shoved to the back of the shelves by the bigger, more tempting Duncan Heines, Betty Crocker, and Pillsbury. But I'm here to give this unassuming mix the attention it deserves.

As a baking enthusiast who makes almost everything from scratch, I usually shun prepackaged mixes and store-bought baked goods; but I know when to make concessions. And I embrace simple mixes like Hodgson because they make baking cheap, quick, and easy--and only you will know it's not "technically" made from scratch.

I know the website prices the mix at $1.35, but it actually costs 99 cents pre-tax (yes, even in New York). I bought a box last week and made a batch in less than 15 minutes. The 7-oz. package provided me with 12 mini muffins, translating to breakfast for an entire week. Now that's an investment.

Obviously, the mix isn't all-inclusive. It requires 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of butter or vegetable oil, and 3/4 cup milk. All together, this still probably amounts to less than $2, and you most likely already have these staples in your kitchen. So for about the same amount of money--if not less--you can have double the amount of muffins you'd get at bakery or cafe. AND they're much more nutritional (most of the muffins at Dunkin Donuts, for example, have more calories and fat than the donuts).

The beauty of using simple mixes like this is that you can customize the batter to suit your particular taste buds. (I added some brown sugar and mashed bananas to mine). So if you're craving that home-baked taste but don' t necessarily want to spend the time or money on making something from scratch, you can always turn to a 99 cent box of Hodgson's for a quick, simple fix.