The Muffin Method

06/27/08

The Muffin Method

Filed under: Blog, Muffin— by joe @ 08:54:57 am Permalink

The muffin method has many virtues, chief among them that it's very fast and can be done — and is indeed better done — without the use of a machine. It's my belief that machine mixing is the chief cause of the inferior muffins mass producers churn out, and why so many bigger bakeries (when they don't use mixes) employ the creaming method, which results in cupcake-like muffins instead of the real thing. Here we have large bowl A, which contains our dry ingredients, thoroughly sifted and blended so as to evenly distribute the leavening (you can use a whisk or even a food processor if you want to get really obsessive).

Next we have medium bowl B, containing all my miscellaneous wet ingredients, including sugar, whisked together. Why is sugar considered a "wet" ingredient in the baking world? Because it dissolves so quickly in anything watery. Here I should emphasize that all your wet ingredients MUST be at room temperature. All of them. Got that? All. Of. Them. Room temperature. The lot.

Now then, spatula in hand, we apply bowl B to bowl A.

And begin to fold, gently, scraping from the bottom and flipping over the top...lightly. The trick here is to fold only as much as it takes to moisten all the dry ingredients and no more. For this double batch of muffins I folded for about 45 seconds, until there were no more large pockets of flour to be found.

Here you can see there are a few small areas of unmixed flour, right around the edges. This is the time to stop folding:

With the mix more or less blended, now's the time to add any other items to your muffin (or pancake or quick bread) batter, in this case blueberries. Fold them in only to the point they are evenly distributed, no more.

Fill your molds with batter and bake.

That was pretty darn easy, wasn't it? For an indication of how well you've mixed, pay attention to the behavior of your leftover batter as you wash out your bowl. If the muffin or quick bread batter simply dissolves in the faucet stream, you've got a superior product to look forward to. If it puts up a fight or leaves slick, stringy and/or rubbery deposits on your wash cloth or sponge, you'll want to ease up on elbow grease next time, killer.

How did I do on these? A near perfect muffin crumb, irregular holes with a few large ones (indicating a slightly uneven mix of leavening), but no "tunnels" caused by gluten formation. I think I'll put the kettle on.

Pingbacks:

No Pingbacks for this post yet...


Hello, Joe!


Categories

Joe Pastry

Archives

February 2010
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
 << <   > >>
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Search




Links

RSS 2.0 feed
Baking tip: Being a consistently great baker means having the right tools for the job! Keeping your drawers and cabinets stocked with the right kitchenware means fewer headaches and better results!
Broken appliances are sure recipes for cooking and baking disasters! Keep all your kitchen appliances in top running condition with replacement parts from PartSelect.com!