10 Tips For Baking Muffins

1. When preparing the ingredients, first mix the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry ingredients in another. Next make a well in the dry ingredients to hold the wet ingredients and mix everything together. Some recipes may instruct a different method of mixing, follow those directions and make sure to add ingredients in order that the recipe dictates.
2. Avoid over stirring when making muffins, do not stir or beat batter until it is smooth and lump free. Muffin batter should be lumpy, your goal is just to moisten the ingredients. You’ll find your muffins will have large holes and a tough texture with overbeating.
3. Measure your ingredients carefully, level off excess with a knife. Sift flour for best results and use fresh baking soda and powder since these are what your muffins need to rise nicely.
4. The trick for keeping nuts and fruit pieces from sinking in the batter while baking are the same as for cakes: Dust nuts and fruit with flour before adding to batter or try toasting nuts first. You can also just sprinkle the nuts across the top of the batter instead of mixing them in, this way the nuts will toast while the muffins bake (see Cake Baking Tips).
5. Don’t fill the cups too full with batter, fill no more than 3/4 full. This will give your muffins nice round tops rather than flat saucer tops. Use an ice cream scoop or other similar scoop to fill your cups, you’ll be sure that the batter is evenly portioned and muffins will bake uniformly. If you have batter left over, cover the bowl and refrigerate while the first batch of muffins bake.
6. To get a nice round muffin top, grease only the bottom and half-way up the sides of the muffin cup. Using a pastry brush is a quick & easy way to grease your tins (see 50 Quick Tips For The Kitchen). You can also use paper liners for easier muffin removal and clean-up.
7. If there isn’t enough batter to go around, fill the empty muffin cups 1/2 full with water. This will help the muffins bake evenly and protect the pan. Some suggest saving one one of the cups to hold water to help keep muffins moist and prevent edges from burning while baking.
8. Turn on the oven before starting to mix ingredients to make sure the oven is preheated and at the right temperature when ready to bake, place the muffin pan on the middle rack of your oven.
9. Muffins are done when the tops are golden and spring back lightly when touched, a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
10. Once the muffins are done baking and you remove them from the oven, let them sit in the tin for a few minutes before removing each muffin, this helps prevent them from falling apart. Sit the pan on a cool wet towel, this will help the muffins come loose from the cups easier and prevent them from sticking to the bottom. Watch though that you don’t keep them in the muffin tin for too long (about 5 minutes is long enough), they can get soggy if they sit too long in the pan.

More Baking Tips:

• Tips Guide For Making Homemade Cookies
• 43 Cake Baking Tips & Tricks
• Tips on Baking Breads

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