Muffins

MUFFINS

My Baking Buddies made muffins at this month’s session.

This recipe is for an original (Old School) muffin. Many places, like coffee shops, sell “muffins” that are a cross between a carrot cake and a classic cupcake. That’s not a real muffin. Real muffins should be coarser and less sweet than a cake. They contain enough fat to be tender but not exactly moist. I would categorise them as a Breakfast Bread, however, they are light and delicious; best eaten warm on the day of baking although, they can be stored in an airtight container for possibly a week.

This is an all-purpose formula that can take anything from berries to chocolate chips.

DRY INGREDIENTS:

11 oz./303g Plain Flour (2+1/4 cups)

2t. Baking Powder

1t Baking Soda

Pinch Salt

WET INGREDIENTS:

3 ¾ oz./105g Sugar (1/2 cup) if you have a sweet tooth this may not be enough sugar.

For sweet muffins I added half the amount of sugar again.

120ml/1/2 cup Vegetable Oil

l large egg

l large yolk

(or 2 medium eggs)

240ml/1cup yoghurt or buttermilk or milk with 1t vinegar or lemon juice

Extras i.e.:  240-280 g/ 1 to 1+ 1/2 cups, berries, dried fruit, nuts, chocolate chips

Blueberries is the favourite but dried strawberries are good too. The pic above is a savoury one with sun dried tomatoes, black olives, and spring onion, dried oregano and an optional grating of parmesan cheese.

Pre-heat oven to 375F or 190C (fan 170) and prepare tin with papers or grease

METHOD:

WEIGH or measure all ingredients

SIFT dry ingredients into large bowl

WHISK together all wet ingredients including sugar, fat and eggs

ADD  the wet to the dry and mix just until batter comes together.

DO NOT MIX SMOOTH. There should be lumps in the batter. If it is smooth you have gone too far.

ADD the berries/nuts/chips and incorporate GENTLY.

Put batter equally into each muffin space using an ice cream scoop or a spoon and bake for 18-20 mins. Or until cocktail stick or knife comes out clean.

The crumb or texture should be rather coarse. Un-evenness of texture is a sign of a muffin and the muffin method of baking ie: putting the wet into the dry and mixing only until combined. The bubbles are air blown by the leavening and are haphazard and varied in size not like the even texture from the creaming method. So if your texture is even you are in possession of a cake masquerading as a muffin. These pseudo-muffins are very common , these days.