Muffin Making and Baking Tips 102

In my previous article on Muffin Making and Baking Tips, I included some important points:

Why do we need to sift the flour?

Why shouldn’t we over-mix the Muffin batter? and

Why not open the Oven door before time?

While writing the article on Cranberry Orange muffin, I realized that I need to include some more pointers for muffin baking which will greatly help the novices. Now before I go further, I want to share something from my own personal experience. As I have shared in my previous articles, Indian households do not have a convection oven. As most of the cooking is done on stove tops, the baked products are always bought from the local bakeries. When I was younger, I have seen my parents bake a Christmas fruitcake on stove top. They used to bake it in a pressure cooker and my sister and I used to hover around the kitchen waiting impatiently for the cake to finish baking and when it was finally ready, we used to eat it together. 

I guess what I am trying to say here is, buying something readymade from the market will save your time and extra work but if you want to learn something and make some memories then you got to keep on trying. It may not be perfect but it will be something which you will cherish forever. 

I am a self taught baker and I found that with a little encouragement and the right recipe you can bake pretty much anything. So, here I am with all the tips about muffin baking. Use them well:

Use a muffin paper or liner

You must have noticed lots of beautiful muffin liners in the baking aisles. They play one of the most important role in baking the muffin properly. I always line the muffin tins with the liners, spray them with oil and then pour the muffin batter in it. This ensures an easier clean up of the pan. Also, the hot muffins are softer in texture and if they are inside a liner you can be assured that they wont break while you are taking them out of the pan. 

Now, if you have already greased all the cups (or they have the juices from the previous batch) and ran out of batter after filling only a couple of cups then I would suggest to fill the remaining ones with a little water so that the heat does not burn the oil (or juices). This will help an easier clean up.

All ingredients at room temperature

Remember the sifting step? It allows all the dry ingredients to get mixed easily, evenly and quickly. Next step is adding the wet ingredients to the dry ones. If you have milk, eggs and butter at room temperature, they will make a smooth batter and combine easily with the dry products. You will not find unnecessary lumps and this will prevent any over mixing of the batter. 

Use good quality ingredients

I never suggest over spending on ingredients but I would recommend getting good quality fresh ingredients. If you have any doubts about the expiration date don’t use it. I like using McCormick Vanilla and Hersey’s Chocolate Chips and Cocoa Powder. They are not super expensive but taste great.

Use a scoop or spoon to measure the batter

Do you know why the homemade muffins look different than the store bought ones? Because we get lazy and take hasty decisions. Why use another spoon to fill the batter in the pan? I will just eyeball it. Believe me, eyeballing is what will make your muffins either huge or too small. Come on! One spoon or scoop doesn’t make much of a difference. Use it.

The ¾ cup rule

Remember we added baking powder and soda in the muffin batter? They help to rise the muffins making them light and soft. Now I know a big cute muffin sounds yummy but if you pour too much batter in the cup then it will keep rising and finally start spilling out. Always pour till ¾ of the cup and then stop. This will also ensure an even cooking.

Don’t skip the pre-heating oven step

As soon as we add the wet ingredients in the dry ones we are on a clock. We do not want to over mix the batter so this is the time to start the pre heating. You can do it before starting the sifting process as well but my oven heats faster so I prefer doing it at this stage. The important point is, the oven should be pre heated and ready for the muffins by the time you mix the batter and fill it in the cups.

Remove the muffins from the pan

Once the muffins have been baked, take the pan out of the oven and set a timer for 2-3 minutes. Then take them out from the pan carefully and transfer to a cooling rack, this ensures that your muffin bottoms are not soggy.

Muffin pan is not baking properly

Personally I have never faced this problem, but I read online that sometimes this happens. Now my guess is, you are not filling all the cups equally and this may result in under cooked muffins. If you are doing everything correctly, then maybe its time to change the muffin pan. I use a Kitchen Aid muffin pan and it works great. It’s a big pan with 12 cups and at times I have baked only 4-5 muffins for my second batch and they have still come out perfect. So get a good bake ware before baking these delicious muffins. 

I hope these tips will help you as they have helped me. Happy Baking!

Recommended Reading:

• Blueberry Orange Muffin
• Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Cranberry Orange Muffin
• Muffin Making and Baking Tips
• Fabulous Lemon Muffins with Lemon Syrup
• Delicious Chocolate Orange Muffins
• Chocolate and Vanilla Half and Half Muffins