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Pam Anderson||5 Comments
Master Recipe for Sweet Tender Muffins
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Makes 1 dozen large, 18 medium, and 4 dozen mini muffins as well as 4 mini quick-bread loaves Make sure to check your muffin cup capacity. Some muffin cups are smaller than the ½-cup called for in this recipe.
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees (or 450 degrees for mini muffins). Prepare Flavorings. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, then alternating ⅓ at a time, beat in the dry ingredients and yogurt until a smooth, thick batter just forms. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with ½-cup capacity (or four 12-cup mini muffin tins) with vegetable cooking spray. Divide batter evenly among the cups. (A spring-action regular or mini ice cream scoop works well. The muffin cups will be full.) Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 12 minutes for the mini muffins and about 25 for the larger ones. Set pan(s) on a wire rack to cool slightly, remove muffins and continue to cool or serve.
Here’s a few variations, but I’ve given you the key to create your own.
Sweet Tender Muffins With Dates and Walnuts: Mix 1 cup each: chopped dates and toasted walnuts with the dry ingredients and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract with the eggs
Sweet Tender Muffins with Chocolate and Cherries: Mix 1 cup each: coarsely chopped dried cherries and miniature chocolate chips with the dry ingredients and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract with the eggs.
Sweet Tender Muffins with Pineapple, Coconut, and Ginger: Mix 1 cup each: coarsely chopped dried pineapple chunks, 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, 1 tablespoon ground ginger, and 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon with the dry ingredients.
Sweet Tender Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins: Mix 3 tablespoons poppy seeds and 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest with the dry ingredients. Spoon half the batter into each muffin cup. Dipping the bowl of a spoon in water as necessary, make a well in each cup of batter. Drop a heaping teaspoon (or 1/4 teaspoon for mini muffins) of lemon curd in each well. Top with remaining batter.
About Pam Anderson
Pam Anderson considers herself Every Cook. A New York Times bestselling author, she has been cooking nearly everyday for over 30 years. With seven published books, she brings satisfying recipes and sage advice to both novice and veteran cooks. Whether you’re on a quest for the perfect brownie, wanting to get dinner on the table effortlessly, hoping to entertain more simply, attempting to shed pounds permanently, or looking to eat delicious meatless, Pam can help. AARP’s official food expert, she is a chef contributor at Runner’s World magazine. Pam is former Executive Editor of Cook’s Illustrated magazine. Her food articles have appeared in many food magazines. She teaches cooking classes across the country and appears frequently on TV and radio. She currently is blogging at her new site, Copper House Events.
Wow! These muffins are great! I made cranberry & orange zest muffins. Yum!!! I only used 1/3-cup per muffin. I could have used 1/2-cup to get that gorgeous “spilling over muffin top.” I am very excited to come up with new flavor combinations! Thanks for the recipe.
I’ve been looking for a “master recipe” like this! These look scrumptious. Thanks for sharing!
Reply
c. brotskysays
these muffins turned out awful–1st they never got golden brown and I baked them for over 45min. Then they were very heavy and not baked inside very much. They never raised like other muffins do. I never experienced such a disaster. With all that yogurt that might be the cause. What happend ?
Reply
jesssays
Made these today with some fresh peaches and they were great! i only had greek yogurt on hand but they still came out really yummy! very fluffy and moist not too dark but just golden 🙂 thanks!
The idea here is to start the muffins in a very hot oven for just a short amount of time. This activates the baking powder and allows the muffins to shoot up in height quickly. We then turn the heat down and continue to cook for longer.
It is possible to replace oil with butter in a muffin recipe as generally most muffin recipes are quite forgiving and you may find that butter gives a better flavour.
The magic ratio for muffins in 2:2:1:1. This means 2 parts flour to 2 parts liquid to 1 part fat to 1 part eggs. The really important part is remembering to use the same unit of weight for each part! What that really means is the fat and eggs should each weigh about the same.
The best bakery-style crumb muffins start with cake flour
Cake flour is more finely ground and has less protein, which leaves the muffins with a fine, light crumb and soft texture. Using cake flour is an easy way to avoid heavy, dense muffins even if you end up stirring just a bit too much.
When you overmix the batter, it crushes the air bubbles and ruins the fluffy texture. → Follow this tip: To ensure a batch of light, fluffy muffins, mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until just barely combined, and no more dry flour is visible.
If there isn't enough egg, your batter or dough may not be able to hold its structure or could end up overly dry or dense. On the other hand, if there is too much egg, your baked goods could lose their shape due to excess liquid, or have a rubbery (or even overly cakey) texture depending on the recipe.
Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt: Sour cream helps keep the muffins extra moist. If needed, you can use plain yogurt instead. Sugar: Use granulated sugar to sweeten these muffins. I used to use some brown sugar and some white granulated sugar, but brown sugar weighed the muffins down.
We recommend using water; however we know that some Makers prefer to use milk to make muffins. Using milk can change the texture of the muffin to be more like a cupcake.
That being said, the standard oven temperature for baking desserts like quick breads and muffins is commonly set to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Setting your oven to this temperature will almost always produce a well-cooked muffin recipe.
The fluffy batter is what gives cupcakes their soft, spongy texture. Muffins, on the other hand, are moist and dense. Another important difference between a cupcake and a muffin is that cupcakes tend to have more sugar and so they're a lot sweeter than muffins.
The most important rule of muffin making is to not over stir the mix. Instead, what you really want is to just moisten the ingredients. Resist the temptation to stir or beat the batter until it is smooth and lump free.
Depending on what ingredients you're using, the batter will range from runny (like thin cake batter) to very thick (like drop-cookie dough). As a general rule, the thinner the batter, the lighter the muffins will be when baked. But don't be afraid to bake thick, gloppy batter.
Make sure to quickly skim the recipe before you start baking to understand the general flow and key steps. You can even make notes on the recipe or highlight key points to help you along.
If muffins are left exposed, the moisture starts to leak from them and they dry out. To store muffins up to 4 days, line an airtight container or zip-lock bag with paper towel and store the muffins in a single layer. Place another layer of paper towel on top of the muffins as well.
According to O. Corriher, the way to get a perfectly puffed up dome on your muffins is to increase your oven heat. She says that 400° should do it, no matter what the recipe says. The higher baking temperature means that the the outside edges of the muffin will set while the middle is still liquidy.
Introduction: My name is Msgr. Refugio Daniel, I am a fine, precious, encouraging, calm, glamorous, vivacious, friendly person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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