Thursday, January 05, 2006

Cooking School: Bakery Style Muffins


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There are a few tricks to baking a bakery style muffin. By "bakery style muffin" I mean a muffin that has a slight crispness to its muffin top, is moist and fluffy inside and is exactly halfway between being coarse and being cake-like. Most importantly, a bakery style muffin has a big, domed top taking up about 50% of the muffin. Kelli, from Lovescool, and I have been pondering the all important question of how to achieve this.
The main thing in achieving a stable, domed rise is to have a thick batter leavened with baking powder. Yogurt is what makes the batter so thick in this recipe. Baking powder will give the muffin plenty of verticle lift, while a muffin leavened only with baking soda would spread a bit, tending to have a flatter top. Overfilling the muffin tins, by which I actually mean coming up to the top of the tin or slightly higher with the batter, will let these muffins have a nice crisp ledge, like a bakery muffin. You can see that I didn't overfill mine quite enough; the ledge is quite small in the photo.
Moisture comes from butter, sugar and eggs. The editors of The Best Recipe, which this recipe is taken from, tested the exact amounts of butter and sugar to perfect (in their opinion) this muffin. I increased the sugar from "One cup minus one tablespoon" to "one cup" because it's simpler. Having only one cup of sugar in this recipe prevents the muffins from being too sweet and cakelike or taking focus away from the flavors in the muffin. The creaming method ensures a tight and fluffy interior crumb in these.
The muffins turned out exactly as promised: domed, beautiful and very bakery-like. They tasted great, with a firmer edge and moist interior. You can add 1 1/2 cups of fruit (fresh or frozen) to the batter, much as Elise has done with her Blueberry Muffins, based on the same recipe. I added some cinnamon and 1 cup of chocolate and cinnamon chips instead. Served warm and with a bit of butter, they were very delicious, though I migh go for a cherry/chocolate combination next time....


Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Bakery-Style Muffins
(Adapted from The Best Recipe)
3 cups ap flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
10 tbsp unsalted butter, very soft
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plain low fat yogurt
3/4 cup (generous) chocolate chips
1/4 cup cinnamon chips

Preheat oven to 375F and grease a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray.
Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a medium bowl.
Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl, adding eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla.
Alternate yogurt and flour into butter mixture, ending with the flour and working in 2 or three additions. Stir in chocolate and cinnamon chips.
Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling them to the top or slightly higher and bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and a tester comes out clean (Note: with fruit instead of chocolate chips, you may have to increase baking time by a few minutes).
Cool on a wire rack.
Makes 12 large muffins
Nic, 7:18 AM


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21 Comments:

wow~~~fabulous muffins.
Thank you for your precise explanation to make bakery style muffins.
Blogger bokbaksa, at 8:02 AM  
What great post.I am a huge fan of muffins so this came as really cool reading.I also really like your site.
Till next time.
Blogger valentina, at 1:24 PM  
yummy yummy yummy, by the way, is it ok if i sub milk instead of yogurt?
Blogger ~~my~~, at 3:23 PM  
I have been trying to get such a top on my muffins made with lemon curd and buttermilk. I've felt I needed baking soda to neutralize the acid. Do you think I need to continue experimenting with the right combo of baking powder & soda? Or would you recommend trying a batch without the soda altogether?
Blogger Rainey, at 5:26 PM  
Nice! I love "bakery-style" muffin tops. No wonder these are good--look at all the butter! I thought the decision to use baking powder or soda just depended on the pH of the batter. I didn't know that one gave more rise than the other.
Blogger Jessica, at 5:48 PM  
bokbaksa - Thank you! I tried to make it clear, but feel free to ask if you have any questions.

valentina - Thanks so much! I'm glad that you like it.

~~my~~ - You will not get the same results with milk. Yogurt is much thicker than milk, as well as being acidic. If you cannot use yogurt, buttermilk will give you similar (though not quite identical) results.

Rainey - If you're using buttermilk, you'll need a little baking soda for extra lift. Try using only 1/4 tsp (I have no idea what scale your recipe is) and more baking soda. I think you're on the right track with the leavening, as long as the batter is already on the thick side.

Jessica - Well, the leavening can give more lift depending on the thickness, acidity and structure of batter. Not to mention the way the batter/dough is handled and cooked... It's not that complicated, really!
Blogger Nic, at 7:26 PM  
hi,
i chanced upon your site and really likes it! can i ask is it ok to mix blueberry with cinnamon?

Cannes
Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:54 AM  
Truly very bakery-tyle muffins you have there :)
Blogger Angie, at 7:23 AM  
Cannes - You can mix blueberry with cinnamon. You might also try using ginger instead of cinnamon with blueberries, or omitting the spice entirely, if you wish.

Angie - Thank you!
Blogger Nic, at 7:41 AM  
Happy new year, Nic - I knew your muffins and cupcakes always looked/sounded perfect, but this one seems even better! I'm hoping to learn baking more this year (I need to make better bread!) - I'm sure I'll keep coming back here to try your great recipes, thank you so much for sharing.
Anonymous keiko, at 5:49 PM  
I can't wait.. I have to try those soon ! Thank you :-)
Blogger chanit, at 9:48 PM  
Yum - these sound wonderful! Chocolate cherry sounds even better! I've only made muffins once that used the creaming method and they were a revelation. The texture was fantastic. Most recipes I've used either called for oil or melted butter and I always substitute oil. Can't say I'll use butter from now on... but maybe for an occasional splurge!
Blogger Cathy, at 6:25 AM  
Excellent! I made these this afternoon with blueberries and they turned out beautifully. Instead of vanilla I added a couple splashes of of orange juice. The cooking time, as suggested, had to be lengthened by about 5-10 minutes.
Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:24 PM  
Wow, I gave these muffins a try today and they are the best muffins I've ever made. I used raspberries and I also did have enough yogurt so ended up doing half yougurt and half sour cream.
Anonymous Jenn, at 4:41 PM  
I'd really love to try these, they look great. The problem is, I'm almost certain that baking soda just doesn't exist here (Netherlands). Is it possible to leave it out or substitute it with something else?
Anonymous Alice, at 4:11 AM  
Alice - Actually, I am fairly sure that baking soda is sold in the Netherlands. Is it perhaps under a different name - like sodium bicarbonate?
Blogger Nic, at 6:33 AM  
I just did some asking around and I found out the name in dutch. Oops. Now I have to try and find it.
Anonymous Alice, at 8:06 AM  
these will be fabulous muffins, I was wondering if part of the flour could be substituted with whole wheat? curious to know. thanks A
Blogger A___, at 12:34 PM  
I too am curious about the flour substitutions. After living in vancouver where J.J. Beans had the most monstrously beautiful whole wheat muffins, I have yet to find a recipe to match. I am also curious, could you cut the butter any without too much consequence?
Blogger The Barista Worker, at 8:42 PM  
I would try one of my other recipes instead if you are looking for something lower in fat. The point of this recipe is to be big and rich, like a bakery muffin, and there are many great recipes that are already healthier.
Blogger Nic, at 5:56 AM  
Hi Nic could tell me the exact weight in grams for 3 cups of flour used in the cinnamon chocolate muffin-Bakery Style (recipe adapted from THE BEST RECIPE)? Some info I got gave the weight of a cup of flour as 140gm, some as 125gm and some as 150gm. Thank You very much. Hope to try it out soon
Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:23 AM  

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