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OK, So i’ve already done a post on baking from scratch, but this is just what came into my head next.
mmmmmmmuffins. are. awesome. and simple once you get the hang of it.
They are great for breakfast, they freeze beautifully, and you can put almost anything into them. I bake them about every three weeks, then freeze to use on mornings where we have less time than usual. I usually put in what I happen to have on hand so it changes from month to month. Frozen blueberries, dried or fresh apples (bruised or mealy ones are ok too), overripe bananas (I mean black, thawed from the freezer they just smoosh out of the peel) and walnuts, ginger and peaches, lemonzest and poppy seed, raisins, all kinds of stuff. I even used some pineapple that I had dried (not the sugar-coated stuff) mixed with banana last batch I made. I may even use coconut milk the next time I try that combo.The possibilities are endless once you learn to work within the basic recipe and make the appropriate modifications.
Pretty much any quickbread recipe can be baked as a muffin, with some time and temperature variations.
For example – Frozen blueberries thaw and add liquid to the batter so you will probably need to back off on the milk a bit, just by enough to approximately equal the amount of liquid the blueberries let off. or you could drain off the blueberry liquid and keep the milk amount the same, but you lose nutrients doing this.
Dried apples require slightly more liquid if you don’t reconstitute them beforehand. You could soak them in water and drain well and the amount of liquid would stay the same.
Sounds more complicated than it really is, you are just replacing one for one. If you add a juicy ingredient you may need to back off the liquid, If you use a dehydrated one, the recipe will need more liquid. You’ll start to learn how the batter should look after you make it a few times.
Other modifications can be made to the basic muffin recipe.
The milk could be skim all the way to heavy cream, even part, but not all, sour cream or yogurt. I replace the milk with about 3 parts rice milk and 3 parts mimiccream http://mimiccreme.com/ for MSPI safe muffins.
You can use brown sugar or white sugar, and with a few adjustments some honey, but not the whole amount of sweetener.
The fat can be reduced quite a bit before the quality begins to suffer. You can use butter, oil or shortening as your fat. Applesauce can be used to replace some, but not all of the fat. Those with very low fat content start to stale very quickly as they cool, and are best eaten warm from the oven. Never gone really low before so I’m not sure how well they will freeze.
The combination of flours you use can be changed up. Keep the Unbleached All Purpose Flour amount the same, as you need about half white flour to still yield a tender, moist muffin. Any more than half whole grains, I feel the final product suffers. Kinda dry and heavy. Maybe I just haven’t hit on the right recipe yet, or the right combo of flours.
You can also freeze them. Cool thoroughly on rack then put on a cookie sheet in the freezer for an hour or two. This prevents them sticking together in a big frozen clump. Then put in freezer bag. They’ll last for a few months if well sealed. Or you could just do what I do and skip all that crap. Put them in two freezer bags without all that prefreezing stuff. They come apart easily enough for me. maybe a little ugly or squished. oh well. If i’m feelin’ it, I may turn the bag after an hour or so to prevent sticking points forming, but not always. I don’t think they’ll last as long in the freezer that way, but we always use them in three weeks so it does not matter.
This is one of my favorites, simply because of its versatility.
These are all mixed, appropriately enough, by the muffin method.
This is the version that I based mine on and the one I started with. I comes from the Joy of Cooking. Kinda boring as written, but very nice with add ins like blueberries or apple pieces.
I have a huge plastic bowl that I use for the wet ingredients and a slightly smaller bowl that I use for the dry stuff. I use a whisk on the dry, then on the wet. I switch to a wooden spoon for the final mix. I have 3 – 12 cup muffin pans for the big recipe. I use a metal measuring cup to scoop the batter into the cups. I use a small plastic spatula to loosen the muffins from the pan. I use a large cooling rack to cool them, but in a pinch you could use a roasting rack or a rack from a toaster oven if the wires are close enough together.
Basic Muffins
12 muffins
Place rack in the center of the oven.
Preheat oven to 400.
Prepare pan using cups, nonstick baking spray or my favorite *A B’s Kustom Kitchen Lube. Whatever you do make sure to coat the muffin pan thoroughly, inside
the wells and on the top, horizontal surface. The muffins will stick to the top of the pan and rip if you don’t do this. A few may still stick a bit even if you do.
Mix the following via the muffin method. See my blog post Pancakes, three different ones for a description of the muffin method.
Dry Ingredients
2 C flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t nutmeg (optional)
Reserve 1/4 c of the dry ingredients for tossing the fruit in
Wet ingredients
2 large eggs
1 cup milk or cream – I usually used 2% If you use yogurt, sour cream or buttermilk, you must add 1/2 t baking soda
2/3 c sugar or packed light brown sugar – I usually use brown sugar
1/2 to one stick melted unsalted butter cooled but still liquid enough to mix (not hot or you’ll scramble the eggs!)
1 t vanilla
Add ins
1 1/2 cup blueberries or 1 1/2 c apple pieces. Just before combining wet & dry, toss the fruit in the reserved dry ingredients. This will help prevent the fruit from clumping in the batter and rising to the top during baking. Set aside.
Combine wet & dry using the muffin method. Add the fruit when the batter is about half mixed. This way you DO NOT OVERMIX! when trying to get the fruit evenly incorporated
Divide batter into muffin cups bake until toothpick inserted in a few muffins comes out clean – 12-15 minutes or slightly longer for versions with fruit. cool a minute or two them turn out onto a cooling rack. Don’t leave them in the pan to cool, they’ll get soggy.
*This is another good one from Alton Brown. A B’s Kustom Kitchen Lube is equal parts shortening and flour whipped till fluffy. Well homemaderachel, I already got this can ‘o baking spray – why is this homemade stuff better? Because very little sticks to it. Even high sugar, high fat things like banana nut bread that would normally stick like cement just fall out of the pan. it really is amazing. and cheap. And it is not in an aerosol can.
*rant rant* I hate spray cans and only use them if I have to and no, it’s not because of global warming, which is really natural cycles playing themselves out and has very little to do with human impact, either. (Notice the recent shift in the media to call it ‘climate change’? It’s because the human created global warming myth is finally starting to be dispelled by solid science and the media can no longer back up the so called connection.) It is that spray cans are resource intensive and usually unnecessary and filled with petrochemicals like butane . yum. I really don’t want that in, on or around my food. simple remember?*rant rant*
Anyway, I’ll never use baking spray again. seriously. This stuff is that good. and it can be use with all baked goods in any pan.
This next one is the sized up, dolled up, health nut whole grain blueberry muffin that I created from the above recipe. With a few miserable failures along the way I might add.
The ounces are by weight. this is an earlier recipe from when I didn’t have a gram scale. and a few of the ingredients are still in cups because they were last-minute changes that I never converted. sorry. I’ll edit it soon. The easiest way to weigh the ingredients is to put a big bowl on the scale then zero it out. Add dry ingredients one at a time, zeroing after each addition.
The liquids are in fluid ounces, and should be measured using a liquid measure, not a dry measuring cup. I have borosilicate glass (pyrex) ones, 1- 8 cup 2- 4 cup, 1- 2 cup and 1- 1 cup. Pretty much all of my liquids for cooking or baking get measured out in one of these. It has to have a defined spout to be used for liquid measure. Those teeny spouts on some measuring cups don’t count.
Blueberry Buckwheat Muffins
36 muffins
Place one rack in the top third and one rack in the bottom third of the oven.
Preheat oven to 400.
Prepare pan using cups, nonstick baking spray or my favorite *A B’s Kustom Kitchen Lube. Whatever you do make sure to coat the muffin pan thoroughly, inside the wells and on the top, horizontal surface. The muffins will stick to the top of the pan and rip if you don’t do this. A few may still stick a bit even if you do.
Mix the following via the muffin method. See my blog post Pancakes, three different ones for a description of the muffin method.
Dry ingredients
8 oz Unbleached All purpose Flour
2 oz Buckwheat flour
2 oz Barley flour
5 oz Whole Wheat flour
1 oz Baking Powder
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t baking soda (add only if using yogurt, buttermilk or sour cream as part or all of your liquid)
1/4 c Flax meal or whole flax seeds
1 c Oats
Reserve 1/2 c of the dry ingredients for tossing the fruit in
Wet ingredients
1 stick c melted unsalted butter cooled but still liquid enough to mix (not hot or you’ll scramble the eggs!)
1/2 c vegetable oil
5 eggs
1 c yogurt
1 1/2 c milk
2 t vanilla
1 1/3 c brown sugar
Add ins
3.5c frozen blueberries.
Just before combining wet & dry, toss the fruit in the reserved dry ingredients. This will help prevent the fruit from clumping in the batter and rising to the top during baking. Set aside.
Combine wet & dry using the muffin method. Add the fruit when the batter is about half mixed. This way you DO NOT OVERMIX! when trying to get the fruit evenly incorporated.
Divide batter into muffin cups. I usually end up with 36 if i fill the cups 2/3 full. I put 2 on the top rack and one on the bottom. You may have to rotate pans halfway thru if your oven is uneven like mine is. Watch them carefully the first time. Every oven bakes differently and most have hot spots. bake until toothpick inserted in a few muffins comes out clean – 15-20 minutes (maybe longer depending on your oven) or slightly longer for versions with fruit. Cool a minute or two them turn out onto a cooling rack. Don’t leave them in the pan to cool, they’ll get soggy.
MSPI Safe Blueberry Muffins
36 muffins
Dry ingredients
8 oz Unbleached All purpose Flour
2 oz Buckwheat flour
2 oz Barley flour
5 oz Whole Wheat flour
1 oz Baking Powder
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/4 C Flax meal or whole flax seeds
1 C Oats
Reserve 1/2 c of the dry ingredients for tossing the fruit in
Wet ingredients
1 c vegetable oil
2.5 c rice milk or 2 c ricemilk and 1/2 c mimiccreme
2 t vanilla
1 1/3 c brown sugar
5 eggs
Add ins
3.5 c frozen blueberries.
prep, mix and bake as above for Blueberry Buckwheat Muffins.
Hope I explained this well enough.
Please comment with any questions.
Shine On!
I freakin’ love pancakes. especially blueberry ones drenched in real maple syrup.
I developed this recipe by modifying the old standby Joy of Cooking (another must have book) pancake recipe for three different variations.
Ok, go here and study the muffin method
http://www.baking911.com/quikbrds/101_intro.htm
easy, right?
Basically, you mix all the dry ingredients together in one bowl and whisk, then the liquids (this includes sugar – not sure why) together in another bowl and whisk. You wait until the very last minute and then stir the two bowls together to barely incorporate. Lumps are OK. DO NOT OVERMIX!!!! Don’t you dare use a mixer! Only by hand.
But why, homemaderachel, you may ask, should i only mix my ingredients until they are barely incorporated and still LUMPY?
One Word ~ Gluten. quickbreads, ie Muffins, Pancakes, Waffles, and cornbread etc. get rubbery, nasty and tough when they are overmixed. Gluten is the stuff that makes bread dough elastic and gives it a chewy texture when baked. Basically food grade rubber bands. Flour has gluten in it that is activated by the addition of liquids and agitation. Those rubber bandy properties are the reason bread has the texture it does. You knead bread, mixing it as much as possible to develop the gluten. With Quickbreads, you mix as little as possible so as to avoid that gluten development and hence rubberiness. As Alton Brown says “mix 10-20 strokes and then walk away, just walk away”.
“Oh, so that is why my pancakes were so gnarly and bouncy” says homemaderachel after discovering the muffin method a few years ago. better used as frisbees, they were.
The first is the straight diner style white flour pancake. a good place to start if you’re not looking for whole grains, just yummy buttermilk pancakes.
Buttermilk Pancakes
makes about 20 4-5 inch – ish pancakes
Dry
540 g Bleached Enriched Flour – no sifting needed because you weighed it and you will whisk it.
71 g Buttermilk powder (listed as Butt powder in my sorry shorthand – makes me giggle every time.) You can get this at most stores in the baking section, mine is located with the baking powder and soda. It is easier than fresh buttermilk and has a longer shelf life.
12g salt
10g baking powder
6g baking soda (not the stuff in the fridge unless you want your pancakes to “taste of a thousand meals” as Homer Simpson said as he ate the baking soda from the fridge, and then proceeded to hallucinate) go buy fresh and seal it in something – remember it absorbs odors, so use something airtight.
Wet
4 Large Eggs
4 c Milk
8T melted unsalted Butter, cooled slightly
84 g sugar
Mix using muffin method
Mix dry in one bowl and whisk well making sure everything is thoroughly incorporated, because you didn’t sift you need to eliminate any lumps.
Mix wet (don’t forget the sugar like i do) in another, larger bowl and whisk very well to incorporate.
Dump dry into wet and give a few quick stirs. scrape the bowl down and then a few more strokes. You should end up with some pea sized lumps and streaks of dry. Stop. DO NOT OVERMIX!!! Set the bowl aside (this allows the lumps to absorb a bit) and prep the pan.
Set oven to warm. this is where you will be parking the finished cakes to keep ‘em warm.
Grease a big ass griddle with butter or spray if it’s not nonstick (or skillet with low sides – can’t flip easy with high sides), mines maybe 16″ round. Heat the big ass griddle to medium heat for maybe 5 minutes. flick a few drops of water onto it. if they just sit there, it’s too cool, jack up the heat a bit. if they skitter and dance for a sec, you’re good. If they evaporate quickly, you’re too hot. back off the heat and wait 5 before retesting. Use the water test to judge, not the flame. The burner i use is a big one and i only need it on medium low to get the right heat.
get your bowl o batter and give it one more stir. just one.
Get yurself a measuring cup or ladle, something you can use to get relatively consistent dips of batter. I usually use a 1/4 or 1/3 c metal measuring cup.
Get you a dip of batter and pour on the hot skillet. I can usually fit 3 at a time on mine. now watch. you will start to see bubbles form and pop. as it starts to cook, these bubbles will start to leave holes. the edges will also start to set. you may need to boost the heat a bit temporarily, sometimes the batter cools the griddle too much. just watch it cook the first few times. check the underside to get an idea of progress. When the bubbles leave holes, the edges are set and the bottom is just golden, flip. The second side will cook in about half the time.
put in the oven wrapped in a towel or something if you plan on keeping warm for serving, or just throw them right on the rack if you’re cooling to freeze, which you will because this makes a shitload of pancakes. i usually turn the oven off after i go from making to serve to making to freeze.
Slather in butter warmed maple syrup and devour. watch the delight in your kid’s eyes as he says in a syrup induced trance “Mommy, I love Pancakes” I do too dear, i do too.
Blueberry variation – I usually add up to three cups of frozen blueberries after the first mixing.
Buckwheat Pancakes
these freaking rock and you can sub all different types of flour for the whole wheat, barley and buckwheat. this is the ratio we prefer. Keep the All Purpose Flour amount the same.
Dry
71 g buttermilk powder
270 g Unbleached All Purpose Flour
150 g Whole Wheat Flour
50 g Barley Flour
12 g salt
10 g baking powder
6 g baking soda
Wet
4 Large Eggs
84 g sugar
4 c milk
8 T unsalted melted butter, cooled
mix as above in muffin method DO NOT OVERMIX!!!! and cook as above.
Health nut variation – add a few tablespoons of flax seed or flax seed meal for a nutty taste (oooh, just thought that might be good with 3 c mushed overripe bananas, maybe some walnuts in Phil’s – have to try that soon).
if you do not have buttermilk powder, just don’t add it, but you will also need to eliminate the baking soda. the only reason it is there is to counteract the acidity of the buttermilk.
MSPI Version. Not quite the same fluffy texture, but it is a work in progress.
Dry
270 g Unbleached All Purpose Flour
150 G Whole Wheat Flour
50 g Barley Flour
70 g Buckwheat Flour
12 g salt
10 g baking powder
Wet
4 Large Eggs
3 cups rice milk
1 cup unsweetened mimiccreme see http://mimiccreme.com/
or 4 cups rice milk if you do not have mimiccream they won’t be quite as good though
8T Shortening, melted & cooled
84 g sugar
mix – at the risk of repeating myself, DO NOT OVERMIX!!!! and cook as above.
relax, they’re only pancakes, if you trash a few, it’s no biggie. By the end of the batch you’ll have ‘gotten it’.
To store, because you will have leftovers, cool thoroughly, put a piece of wax paper between each & wrap a bunch of them in plastic or foil, then in a freezer bag. in the freezer they’ll last a few months well wrapped.
thaw in microwave for a minute or so on 50% power then toast till done.
Enjoy.
Please comment me with any questions. I tried to make all this as easy as possible, but like i said this is my first shot at this. Constructive criticism welcome.
Shine on.
