The perfect muffin has a thin, golden crust, with a well-shaped dome and a soft, juicy crumb. Do you want to know how to get a perfect muffin?
I love muffins. They are like little cakes in portions just the right size for one, which fix breakfasts, snacks and moments of sharp cravings. I tend to pounce on them. Baked Comfort Food will be useful for getting more tips about Cakes, Muffins, Pie etc.
The muffins are quite similar to cupcakes, but they are characterized by having less fat and sugar, which makes them much healthier. Of course, they can be made both sweet and savory, and admit all kinds of tripping and dressing.
With them, you can prepare double the dough and freeze half, and you can even freeze the muffins themselves, once they have cooled. They are very easy to prepare (you do not have to knead, roll, or cut ..), they require little time and the result is fantastic if you follow certain simple steps:
Cream The Butter:
Many recipes are limited to mixing the wet ingredients, on the one hand, the dry ones on the other, and then joining them all together, making the typical mountaineering of flour with a hollow in the centre where the humid mixture is deposited. But if you want to get a really light texture and a delicate crumb.
Cream The Butter With The Sugar:
Beat the butter for one or two minutes until it is soft, and then gradually add the sugar and cream until the mixture Acquire a very light texture and a very light colour. You have to stop from time to time during this process and with a spatula lower the mixture to the bottom of the bowl. It is known when it is ready when a slight shine appears in the butter. The eggs are then added, and then the dry ingredients are incorporated.
Work With Cold Butter:
The perfect muffin should not only be delicious, but it should have the classic dome shape. If the dough is too soft, the muffins will be flat. The trick is to use cold butter, cut into small portions, and a stand mixer, type Kitchen Aid, with enough force to creme cold butter. If what you have is a pastry blender with rods, it is better to let the butter stand out of the refrigerator for 15 minutes, so that it remains cold but is malleable. The cold dough in the mold of the muffins helps maintain the dome shape.
Always Sift The Flour:
Mix the flour with the yeast stirring well with a rod, to make sure that the yeast is well distributed, and then pass them through a sieve. This way you will get a more spongy and airy mass, and you will make sure that all the muffins receive the same amount of yeast and go up equally.
Do Not Beat The Dough In Excess:
Once the flour is well incorporated, it is necessary to stop beating, since when beating a lot or very strong, we run the risk of developing the gluten of the flour and the muffins are hard and flat. Of course, do not incorporate the flour with the stand mixer, but by hand with a spatula or silicone tongue. Maybe this is the most important advice!
Add The Flavours At The End:
The spices have to be added with the rest of the dry ingredients, but the fruit, nuts, pieces of chocolate and any other “lumpy” ingredient should be added at the end. Just give the dough one more turn when you have added them.
There is no doubt that the capsules are comfortable, and some of them come with very attractive designs, but if you butter the tray of muffins you will get a delicious aroma in the crust, and this one will be crunchier. In any case, if you are going to use capsules, it is also recommended to lubricate them.
Caution with non-stick trays, which are usually black. It is best not to use dark colours, as they attract too much heat and can toast the surface of the muffin too much.
Grease The Whole Tray:
Not only the holes but the entire surface, to make sure that the top of the muffins does not stick to the tray. If you do not have enough mass to fill all the holes, fill with 3 tablespoons of water the hollows without mass to prevent them from becoming deformed, and those not greasing.
Put A Silicone Or Silpat Sheet Under The Tray:
This will ensure that the base of the muffins is not made more than the bill and facilitate the subsequent cleaning.
Divide The Dough Into Identical Portions:
You can fill a pastry bag and fill the holes in the tray with the eye, but ideally use a scoop of ice cream, about 6 cm in diameter, so that all muffins have the same amount of dough and leave with the same size of the oven. Logically, for this the mass must be thick. If it is not, check your recipe because something goes wrong … and in any case add more flour, until when you key a spoon in the dough, stand up.
Never Fill More Than ¾ Of The Capsule Or Recess:
If you do not leave some space for the muffin to rise a bit until it reaches the edge, you will not get the dome shape that we are looking for and it will stay flat.
Place The Tray In The Centre Of The Oven And Bake At 180ºc:
There are recipes that ask for higher temperatures, but if a furnace works ben, 180º is the correct temperature. It is best to buy an oven thermometer, which will give us the exact temperature of the interior.
Let Cool:
Unlike muffins, muffins cool quickly, so a grid is not necessary. Leave the muffins in your tray for ten minutes to settle (no more time, as moisture may concentrate in the base) and cool a little, and then remove them from the tray and place them in a dish covered with baking paper until they cool completely.
