Master Recipe for Sweet Tender Muffins — Three Many Cooks (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making moist muffins? ›

Chilling your muffin batter overnight in the fridge is the BEST thing you can do for amazing muffins. It makes them more moist, tender, and TALLER! It's very similar to chilling cookie dough, which if you know me you know I'm obsessed with chilling cookie dough.

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.

What causes the muffins to be tough, heavy or rubbery? A. Two things: too much egg and using a dark, nonstick pan.

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.

Overmixing the batter.

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.

Rest the Muffin Batter

The first, most hands-off way to make your muffins pop (literally) is to let the batter rest. Make the batter, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the batter rest at room temperature for about 1 hour. If you're short on time, just 30 minutes can make a difference.

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.

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.

Overmixing is a common problem with muffins. First combine dry ingredients, mixing well. Then combine liquid ingredients, mixing well. Finally combine dry and wet ingredients, by hand, using only 15 to 20 light strokes.

What is the most important rule to follow when baking muffins? ›

Don't over stir

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. You want the final mix to be lumpy, thick and floury.

I suggest baking your muffins at 400 F. I know most muffin recipes (including the ones I have used previously) all tell us to preheat our ovens to between 325-375 F. That heat range is just not enough. While it will surely cook your muffins, it will not give you the full rise that you want.

Can I Use Milk in Place of Water? You technically can, but it's not recommended. MUFFINS AND CUPCAKES ARE NOT THE SAME! If your box mix calls for water, it's probably because adding milk will make them TOO MOIST.

Realize that overmixing can cause muffins to be tough, bake unevenly, create elongated holes (or tunnels) and/or form peaked tops.

Start the oven on high

Bake your muffins at 400°F for the first 5 minutes, then drop the temperature to the more standard 350°F for the remainder of the bake time. This method sparks the leavening agents (especially baking powder) in the batter to react quicker, creating that gorgeously risen top.

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.

Many muffin recipes use cooking oil instead of butter. Oil, being a liquid, distributes easily in the quick-mix batter and is readily absorbed into the baked muffin, producing a light non-greasy texture. Vegetable oil is ideal because its mild flavour doesn't compete with the main flavour of the muffin.

One of the easiest ways to revive stale muffins is to warm them in a hot oven. First, spray them with water or pat them with a damp paper towel. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to around 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Wrap each muffin in aluminum foil and reheat the whole batch for up to 10 minutes.