The Muffin Method

Some of my relatives made a cookbook some years ago. It has some tasty recipes, but many recipes are simply a list of ingredients, followed by, “Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.” When I first started using the cookbook, I found this undesirable. Now, I often ignore the directions in recipes not written this way. Here’s how I make muffins.

The Muffin Method

1. Put the dry ingredients in a large bowl and the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl. I usually use my liquid measuring cup for the wet ingredients, adding any eggs or vanilla last (I can add fractions, so this is easy).
2. Whisk the dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients.
3. Dump the wet ingredients on the dry, fold with a spatula until just combined.
4. Scoop into muffin tins, bake as directed. If there are no baking directions, try 350°F for 20 minutes.

What’s with the strange details? I make a lot of muffins, and I have found this process uses the least utensils while making the best muffins. The two worst things in a muffin are (1) biting into a chunk of unmixed baking powder and (2) having a nasty texture. This method eliminates both those issues.

By whisking the dry ingredients, the baking powder (or soda) and salt get well combined. Whisking the wet ingredients beats the egg a little bit. If you’re not sure whether an unusual ingredient (e.g. raisins) is considered wet or dry, dump it in the wet container.

The key to a good texture is not stirring wet flour. Stirring wet flour creates gluten, which is generally good in yeast breads and bad in quick breads. I have found that if I don’t beat the egg a bit before adding it to the dry ingredients, it can be pretty tough to get the egg mixed in without over-mixing the batter. Once I decided just to leave the egg a bit lumpy. Bad idea. It resulted in a little chunk of cooked egg in the middle of a muffin.

This method could generally be used for other quick breads, such as banana bread. Actually, that reminds me it’s almost zucchini season, and I’ve never made zucchini bread…