How to Bake Muffins So That They Rise Evenly and Get Cooked Well From the Inside
Muffins are considered to be a quite simple type of bakery, cooking that even a newbie can deal with — all they need to do is to mix all the ingredients and place it all into baking molds to cook them in the oven. You don’t need to whisk egg whites to a puffy foam or thoroughly mix butter with sugar. Nevertheless, even experienced chefs might occasionally get difficulties with this dessert.
We at 5-Minute Crafts decided to check experimentally what mistakes in the recipe or cooking technology stop muffins from becoming perfect.
We took a simple basic recipe of muffins and used ingredients that can be found in any kitchen: eggs, milk, flour, baking soda or powder, sugar, oil, and salt. Blackcurrant was added as a filling, but you can use other berries, raisins, or chocolate.
In order to make muffins rise to the edges of the baking form (in our case, it is a paper form, not the baking tray itself), you need to fill the 2-3 of the form. Below you’ll find examples of the result that we got when we slightly changed the main recipe, having increased the amount of some ingredients.
Too much oil
Due to the excess oil, the dough turned out to be more liquid and viscous. The muffin almost didn’t rise during the baking process, and its middle was not baked properly.
Too much baking soda or powder
The increase in the amount of baking soda or powder led to the fact that muffins rose quickly but there were too many empty spaces inside and the muffin got an unpleasant taste.
Too much flour
Such muffins had a bit darker crust and were too dense and dry inside.
Too much milk
Having added too much milk, we got a liquid dough that was sticking to the mixer and the walls of the bowl. The muffins didn’t rise well and the bread inside stayed wet.
All ingredients in the right amount
In the picture above you can see a muffin that was cooked following all the requirements of the recipe. It has a nice inside part, a slightly sweet taste, and an even half-rounded top.
Other possible mistakes when cooking muffins
- Kneading the dough for too long
Good muffins have light and puffy bread. If you knead the dough for too long, it will lose air bubbles and the muffins won’t be puffy in the end.
- Not greasing the mold and not using special inserts
As a result, muffins will stick to the mold and it will be hard to get the baked product out of the mold.
- Pouring too much dough into the mold
In this case, the dough will rise, inflate and come out of the mold, which means that you will have to forget about an even, beautiful muffin.
- Keeping muffins in the oven for too long or too little
If you take muffins out too early, they won’t be baked in the center. But if you keep them in the oven for at least 5 minutes longer, the inside part will be too dry.
- Leaving muffins too cool down in the baking molds
After having taken muffins out of the oven, don’t leave them in the molds for a long time, otherwise, they will get dry. Let them stay like that for a couple of minutes, then take them out and leave them to cool down on the grille.