Looking for a good Muffin Base recipe

[doughytard]

I don't know if this would be the right place to ask this, but I've been trying out different muffin recipes lately and none of them have impressed. Does anyone have a good fall back muffin base recipe that they'd be willing to share with me?

 

[Norcalbaker59]

I don't know if this would be the right place to ask this, but I've been trying out different muffin recipes lately and none of them have impressed. Does anyone have a good fall back muffin base recipe that they'd be willing to share with me?

Muffin is a pretty general description.

A bran muffin is going to be very different from a blueberry muffin because bran is going to absorb a significant amount of liquid. So a bran muffin will have around 120% milk to flour. Where is some thing like a blueberry muffin will have about 60% - 80% milk to flour.


You can make your own muffin base; these are the typical baker percentages. You can experiment with the percentages to come up with a base you like.

100% all purpose flour
4% leavening (baking powder, baking soda or combination of both)
1.5% salt (not table salt)
66% - 76% granulated sugar
40% fat (Oil, melted butter or combination of both)
35% whole eggs
1.5% vanilla extract
60% - 80% buttermilk or milk
65% - 80% add ins (blueberries, cranberries, whatever)

To use bakers percentages calculate all your ingredients based on the weight of the flour.

You need about 260 g - 300 g flour 12 muffins.

leavening is 4%. So let’s say you’re going to use a combination of baking powder and baking soda

baking soda 3%
260 x .03= 7.8g

Baking soda 1%
260×.01 = 2.6g

salt 1.5%
260 x .015 = 3.9g

sugar 70%
260 x .70 = 182g

You get the idea.

Muffins are mixed using the muffin method;

all dry ingredients are mixed together

all wet ingredients are mixed together

then the two are quickly combined but not over mixed


Generally you want to bake at a higher temperature 375°F (190°C) for about 18 to 20 minutes

I actually start my muffins in a 425° oven five minutes then drop the temperature down to 325°F.

streusel topping is made of following

100% - 140% unsalted butter, cold
100% granulated sugar
100% almond flour
100% pastry flour
.05% salt
.04% cinnamon


80g - 114g unsalted butter
80g granulated sugar
80g almond flour
80g pastry flour
4g salt (not table salt)
3g cinnamon

 

[ShuBunny]

rebaked the same batter , except that batter had been chilled for 4 hours.
Baked at 190C for 18mins.
Pan: USA pans. but the bakewell muffin pan - so each muffin was scooped with #40 disher.
top still a little gummy even though toothpick was clean.
bottom a little too dark.
i was baking on lowest shelf in tiny oven.
might try baking on 3rd shelf for the next batch of batter.

 

[retired baker]

rebaked the same batter , except that batter had been chilled for 4 hours.
Baked at 190C for 18mins.
Pan: USA pans. but the bakewell muffin pan - so each muffin was scooped with #40 disher.
top still a little gummy even though toothpick was clean.
bottom a little too dark.
i was baking on lowest shelf in tiny oven.
might try baking on 3rd shelf for the next batch of batter.


View attachment 3844
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Nothing wrong with those, they're not too dark on the bottom.
You can get different results by baking them without paper cups, grease and flour the mold.

 

[ShuBunny]

Thanks a lot @retired baker
I shall give that a go too.

 

[retired baker]

and ...we always worked with chilled batter,
its commercially impractical to mix a batch of batter every time you need to knock out some muffins.
The chilled batter+frozen fruit also allows for a bigger head on the muffin without it melting all over the mold.
I use equal part by weight fruit/batter. Its a lot of fruit , that makes a great but expensive muffin.

 

[retired baker]

1lb butter,
1.5lb sugar,
6 eggs,
3.5 cups milk.

2 ozs bakin.powder.
2.5lbs bread flour.

cream soft butter (or marg) with sugar, add eggs, scrape bowl down,
add milk,
add flour and BP and just mix lightly to prevent gluten forming.
Chill the batter.
Bake at 375F or higher if it melts too much.

Really fill the mold up.

 

[retired baker]

This is what they look like before baking, already piled up above the top of the mold.

 

[retired baker]

and baked.

 

[ShuBunny]

hey @retired baker ,

That's a awesome muffin dome! Thanks for the recipe too.

If my muffin is plain without mix in, how long can i chill the a 12-standard size muffin batter before all the baking powder loses their ability to leaven?

Many thanks!

 

[ShuBunny]

Hi @retired baker,

Again, thanks for your recipe! It made me realise that I was using too little baking powder.
Here’s the results after the adjustments.
No longer stodgy! And I baked at 375F.

I didn’t chill this batch yet. Could you advise how long I can chill 2 lb of muffin batter before the leavening effect ends?

Unchilled Muffin was filled to edge of tin, and rose about 30% above the tin.

Cheers!

 

[retired baker]

hey @retired baker ,

That's a awesome muffin dome! Thanks for the recipe too.

If my muffin is plain without mix in, how long can i chill the a 12-standard size muffin batter before all the baking powder loses their ability to leaven?

Many thanks!

Yeh, your new batch...those look good.

keeps several days, depending on how cold you chill it.
You'll notice when it loses steam but can always add more BP to perk it up, just mix it in with the fruit.
I used to get a few days from a batch which weighed 62 lb.

We used uns margarine, the batter is less stiff and easier to hand mix frozen fruit in when chilled.... and a lot cheaper.
Full fat milk powder and water instead of expensive milk.

Our muffins won Best of Boston award and we made thousands of them.
Make em fast, stack em high, sell them cheap.

small commercial batch.
8 lb marg
12 lb sugar
3 qt egg
7 qt water
1 lb milk powder.
20 lb bread flour
1 lb baking powder.

Start the fat and sugar, instead of stopping to scrape the bowl and getting in up to your armpits just hit the bowl with a propane torch to heat it, add all the eggs in one plop and fluff it up a bit, add water and stop the mixer, weigh all dry ingredients into bowl, start mixer and just mix until it barely creams , maybe 30 seconds.
The whole batch took less then 4 minutes to knock out.

I still use a blowtorch on my little kitchenaid mixer, scraping is too slow and messy.

 

[ShuBunny]

Small is relative! Your small commercial batch sounds like all the bread flour my supermarket displays. Thanks for sharing your recipe!

 

[doughytard]

Yeh, your new batch...those look good.

keeps several days, depending on how cold you chill it.
You'll notice when it loses steam but can always add more BP to perk it up, just mix it in with the fruit.
I used to get a few days from a batch which weighed 62 lb.

We used uns margarine, the batter is less stiff and easier to hand mix frozen fruit in when chilled.... and a lot cheaper.
Full fat milk powder and water instead of expensive milk.

Our muffins won Best of Boston award and we made thousands of them.
Make em fast, stack em high, sell them cheap.

small commercial batch.
8 lb marg
12 lb sugar
3 qt egg
7 qt water
1 lb milk powder.
20 lb bread flour
1 lb baking powder.

Start the fat and sugar, instead of stopping to scrape the bowl and getting in up to your armpits just hit the bowl with a propane torch to heat it, add all the eggs in one plop and fluff it up a bit, add water and stop the mixer, weigh all dry ingredients into bowl, start mixer and just mix until it barely creams , maybe 30 seconds.
The whole batch took less then 4 minutes to knock out.

I still use a blowtorch on my little kitchenaid mixer, scraping is too slow and messy.

Ive made so many batches of meh muffins over the last few months before I saw your post. I didn't have bread flour on hand so I used bleached AP, I'll have to try it with bread flour next time to see if I like the difference, but either way they turned out fantastic. I don't know if it was the margarine or the milk powder but the texture was soft and melt in your mouth in a way that no other recipe I've tried compares to. Keeping this as a staple recipe, thanks so much!

 

[retired baker]

Ive made so many batches of meh muffins over the last few months before I saw your post. I didn't have bread flour on hand so I used bleached AP, I'll have to try it with bread flour next time to see if I like the difference, but either way they turned out fantastic. I don't know if it was the margarine or the milk powder but the texture was soft and melt in your mouth in a way that no other recipe I've tried compares to. Keeping this as a staple recipe, thanks so much!

Its counter-intuitive sometimes .

 

[doughytard]

Does bread flour make a significant difference? Im making a large batch this weekend for a gathering but I'm not sure if I should switch flours since I likes them so much with AP

Its counter-intuitive sometimes .

 

[retired baker]

go with whatever you prefer, why change what you liked.
I always made them with high gluten flour but mixing is treacherous, slightly overmixing makes a rubbery muffin, all purpose is safer and more tolerant to over mixing.

 

[doughytard]

go with whatever you prefer, why change what you liked.
I always made them with high gluten flour but mixing is treacherous, slightly overmixing makes a rubbery muffin, all purpose is safer and more tolerant to over mixing.

Alright I'll just stick with AP, thanks again for the recipe