Muffin Recipes

There are a lot of little things that go into making super delicious muffins, we put together a list of 17 tips to help you with making to die for muffins that will bring smiles to your friends and families faces.

1. Check the weather.

Odd, yes, but quick breads suffer under high humidity, which causes the batter to turn sticky and glutinous. If the day’s particularly damp, reduce the amount of liquid in the batter just slightly. If the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of milk, fill the mea­suring cup to just shy of the rim, thereby reducing the amount of liquid in the batter by perhaps 1 tablespoon and giving the day’s humidity its due.

2. Preheat the oven.

Muffins need a hot oven to rise properly. Preheat yours for 15 minutes, time enough to collect the ingredients and whip up the batter.

3. Cool the melted butter.

Hot melted butter can shock both the flour’s glutens and the leavening agent, reducing the rise in the muffins. It can also lead to bits of scrambled egg in the batter. So give the melted butter about 5 minutes to cool down.

4. Let the eggs come to room temperature.

Cold eggs can shock the leavening and retard the poof of the muffin’s famous hat. If you leave the eggs in their shell on the counter for about 15 minutes, they’ll be just right. If you’re in a hurry, place them in a bowl of room temperature water for 5 minutes before cracking them.

5. If you want, beat the egg whites separately and fold them in later.

As we were testing recipes, we went back and forth on this one—should we make it a standard rule or not? We finally decided it was too much for a book about a down-home treat. Still, for some recipes, like Chocolate Chip Muffins, we’ve held to this fussier technique simply to lighten a batter weighed down with, say, chocolate chips. You can do the same for any sweet muffin. (We don’t recommend this technique for savory muffins—these should be denser and chewier.) Add the yolks where it indicates to add the eggs, then beat the egg whites separately in a medium bowl with an electric mixer at high speed, until soft peaks form. Fold the beaten whites into the batter after you’ve added the dry ingredients. It’s a sure way to make very light, tender muffins.

6. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

The salt and leavening need to be evenly distributed throughout the flour before the mixture is added to the wet ingredients. This ensures the proper rise and texture once the muffins are baked.

7. Don’t sift the flour.

You’re making a quick bread, not a cake. For the best crumb, spoon the flour into a measuring cup, then level it off with the back of the spoon.

8. Unless it’s specifically called for, leave the electric mixer in the cabinet.

An electric mixer will set the flour’s glutens too stiff. Use a whisk to beat the eggs, then a wooden spoon to mix in the dry ingredients. Whatever you do, don’t overmix—stir only until the flour is moistened. As with pancake batter, leave the lumps alone.

9. Wash the muffin tins before you fill them.

Dry the individual cups carefully on the top and in the indentations, but don’t dry the bottom of the entire muffin pan. The remaining moisture will produce a little steam in the oven, which will crisp the muffin tops as they rise, much as you might spritz the oven with water as you bake bread for a crunchier crust.

 

10. Grease the muffin tins, even if they’re nonstick.

A layer of fat between the batter and the tin does three things: 1) it protects the batter from super-heating in the oven, 2) it allows the sides to crisp, and 3) it makes clean-up a snap. We recommend using a nonstick spray, even one with added flour, like Baker’s Joy. You can also use butter—or the wrapper it came in, so long as it has some soft butter still adhering to it.

11. Fill the muffin cups three-quarters full.

Leave enough room for the muffins to expand as they bake. And don’t press down when you fill the tins. The batter will naturally collapse in the oven’s heat. If you have extra batter, either place it in extra tins or in individual, oven-safe, 1/2-cup, greased ramekins, or reserve the batter for a second baking. If you’ve used double-acting baking powder, it should be allright—the muffins won’t be as light as those from the first baking, but they’ll still be moist and tender.

12. Fill any unused muffin cups with water.

Doing so will help the nearby muffins bake evenly; it will also keep those near the empty indention from drying out. Plus, the added water will keep metal tins from warping under the oven’s high heat.

13. Work quickly.

You can, of course, prepare the wet and dry ingredients separately, then take a break, perhaps to prepare the rest of the meal (although don’t let the egg mixture sit at room temperature for more than 30 minutes). But don’t dally once you’ve combined the wet and dry ingredients; spoon the batter into the tins and bake the muffins right away.

14. Treat baking times as guides, not law.

Even modern ovens have hot spots. Some have temperature swings, thanks to less-sensitive thermostats. And sometimes the density of one brand of flour over another or variants in the size of a “large” egg are enough to throw off the baking times slightly. Always check for doneness with a metal cake tester or a toothpick, as directed in the recipes.

 

15. Don’t be quick to unmold the muffins.

Once the tins are out of the oven, cool them on wire racks for at least 5 minutes, or sometimes longer for more delicate muffins. For the best structure, muffins need to let off steam in their tins, condensing slightly with the form holding them intact.

16. Rewarm muffins in their tins.

Tip them up, so that their tops are at an angle, one corner of the bottom still

touching the tin. Then place them in a warm (but off) oven for about 5 minutes.

17. Thaw muffins at room temperature.

Most muffins freeze exceptionally well. The exceptions are those with fresh berries and stone fruits, often found among the variations in this book—the problem is not freezing, of course, but thawing: too much moisture ruins the crumb. These are best simply stored at room temperature. To freeze the rest of the muffins presented here, seal them, once they’re cool, in a freezer-safe bag and store the muffins in the freezer as indicated in the recipe. To serve, let them stand at room temperature for at least 2 hours, or for 4 hours if they contain any fruit. We don’t recommend heating them after they’ve been frozen—minuscule ice crystals in the muffins will melt and then steam, thereby compromising the texture by turning them gummy.

When it’s all done, you get nice yummy muffins….. Mmmm, mmmm good!