Muffins have been introduced to the Slovak baking only few years ago. For a long time, I was really against them. Because… well what's the point? It is just a cake batter baked in a special form, which makes them difficult to make as you have to waste your time on dividing the batter into several small holes instead of pouring all batter into one pan. In fact, I have to admit that (more or less) my opinion on muffins is still the same (I mean I still think that it would be easier to pour all batter into one baking pan). However, muffins have found their way into my heart :D And now, I have paper cups for muffins to last me for my whole life :) Further, and this is probably nothing new for the USA/UK readers (if any), the technique for making a muffin batter is slightly different from making a cake batter (as I will try to explain below).
Basically, all US and UK muffin recipes that I read state the same: we combine "wet" ingredients and in another bowl, we combine "dry" ingredients. THEN we combine wet and dry mixture. However, we mix it only until the dry ingredients are moistened. Thus, the final mixture will be and should be a little bit lumpy. If we over mix the dough, there will be a lot of gluten development which would lead to muffins being tough and they would also not risen as much. I think that the aforementioned information is not new to US and UK bakers. However, I have noticed that many Slovak non-professional (and sometimes even professional) bakers tend to write in their recipes "and now thoroughly mix all ingredients with a hand mixer until the mixture is smooth" - this is the point where I usually stop reading the respective recipe as it is evident that the baker is in dark when it comes to muffins :). Long story short, I wanted to write a little bit about technique for non-UK/US bakers.
The first muffins I have ever baked are adaptation of the Nigella Lawson's recipe which is written below.
Basically, all US and UK muffin recipes that I read state the same: we combine "wet" ingredients and in another bowl, we combine "dry" ingredients. THEN we combine wet and dry mixture. However, we mix it only until the dry ingredients are moistened. Thus, the final mixture will be and should be a little bit lumpy. If we over mix the dough, there will be a lot of gluten development which would lead to muffins being tough and they would also not risen as much. I think that the aforementioned information is not new to US and UK bakers. However, I have noticed that many Slovak non-professional (and sometimes even professional) bakers tend to write in their recipes "and now thoroughly mix all ingredients with a hand mixer until the mixture is smooth" - this is the point where I usually stop reading the respective recipe as it is evident that the baker is in dark when it comes to muffins :). Long story short, I wanted to write a little bit about technique for non-UK/US bakers.
The first muffins I have ever baked are adaptation of the Nigella Lawson's recipe which is written below.
These muffins contain bananas, which makes them moist and "fresh" for longer time (due to this, I simply love baking with bananas, and also you don't have to add so much sugar when using bananas... and the dough with bananas has such nice little kick - you definitely have to try it - not the kick but baking with bananas).
. . .
We will need:
3 super ripe bananas
125 ml vegetable oil (1/2 cup)
2 eggs
100 g soft light brown sugar (1/2 cup) - I have used regular granulated brown sugar
225 g all purpose flour (1 1/2 cups)
45 g cacao (3 tablespoons)
METHOD:
1. We prepare all ingredients ahead in order to have them all at a room temperature (take the eggs from the fridge at least one hour prior baking). Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F.
2. Mash the bananas and add to them eggs, sugar and oil (you can use a hand mixer at this point, however, I prefer mixing the ingredients by hand; I think this is the reason why I fell in love with making muffins:)).
3. Sift the flour, cacao and baking soda in another bowl.
4. Gently combine wet and dry ingredients - no hand mixer. Mix only until the dry ingredients are moistened, the final batter should be a little bit lumpy and not smooth. When you lift your spatula, the batter should fall down in pieces, it should not pour down in one stream. This particular dough will be very thick - at one point I have even thought that there was not enough wet batter to moisten all dry ingredients but eventually, it all came together nicely.
5. Divide the batter into 12 paper cups (put in a muffin pan) and bake at 200°C/400°F for 20 minutes.
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6. Check on muffins regularly. After the muffins are baked, let them cool for about 5 minutes in the muffin pan. Then, take them out and let them cool on a wire rack.
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