Better Muffins

We grab one when we need a quick meal and it’s there individually wrapped behind a glass sliding door or pick up a pack at the supermarket or even spend a Sunday evening making a batch for lunchboxes for the week - muffins are a humble dish.

Don’t you know the muffin man?

The before times

How ingredients affect a muffin

Hey there, welcome or welcome back. My name is Sylvie and I’m a baker who has been studying the science and fundamentals of this industry whilst also spending many hours baking for my website roamingtaste.com

Today we’re diving into muffins. The history of them and specifically the ingredients most often called for and how each interacts together to create the best muffins.

Don’t you know the muffin man?

“Don’t you know the muffin-man,

Don’t you know his name?

Don’t you know the muffin-man

As lives in Drury Lane?”

Before we get to the aforementioned sweet cake-style muffins we see in so many places. We have to briefly go into the Muffin Man because the nursery rhyme and our modern day muffins are very different; with Emma Kay from her book A History of British Baking - From Blood Bread to Bake-Off sharing that

Typically, muffin men sold flat-bread muffins, leavened with yeast and often unsweetened, which shot to popularity in the 1700s. They probably derive from early griddle cakes.

And the book London Labour and the London Poor by Henry Mayhew from 1851 describing the types of people who did this job

The sellers of muffins and crumpets are a mixed class, but I am told that more of them are the children of bakers, or worn-out bakers, than can be said of any other calling.

The street-sellers of muffins and crumpets rank among the old street-tradesmen. It is difficult to estimate their numbers, but they were computed for me at 500, during the winter months. They are for the most part boys, young men, or old men, and some of them infirm. There are a few girls in the trade, but very few women.

Which explains why the term is muffin man.

They did their jobs by ringing a bell, going from door to door and shouting out ‘Muffins and cakes!’ or ‘Muffins and crumpets!” and carrying

delicacies in a basket, wherein they are well swathed in flannel, to retain the heat: “People likes them warm, sir,” an old man told me, “to satisfy them they’re fresh, and they almost always are fresh; but it can’t matter so much about their being warm, as they have to be toasted again. I only wish good butter was a sight cheaper, and that would make the muffins go. Butter’s half the battle.”

If you’re wondering whether they made the products they sold, Henry Mayhew answers this in his book London Labour and the London Poor

I did not hear of any street-seller who made the muffins or crumpets he vended.

This kind of aligns when we consider that most of these vendors were young boys or old men or they had infirmities, so the labour required in producing the breads would have been too difficult with their physical limitations.

The reason they had to yell or shout out to sell their products is because of the incessant street noises from other vendors selling things from fruits and vegetables to meat to flowers and stationary. Add in the constant click clacking of horse drawn carriages and cobblestone streets and we have a real picture forming of the type of environment they worked in.

It can be hard to connect with these stories, without real people and their lived experiences from a time so different to our own. So it seems appropriate that one of the muffin men mentioned in the book A History of British Baking - From Blood Bread to Bake-Off really stuck with me

there was Harry Dimsdale, also a muffin man pedalling the streets in the 1700s, who acquired a mock knighthood by the local community for his abilities to speak out about local matters. Recorded as being a dwarf, 'Sir' Harry was quite a character and someone who was cruelly and frequently labelled as 'deformed' and an 'idiot'. A notice of his arrest for being drunk and disorderly is recorded at the old 'watch-house', near St Anne's Church in Soho. When questioned about his behaviour, Harry responded: 'May it please ye, my magistrate, I am not drunk; it is languor. A parcel of the bloods of the Garden have treated me cruelly, because I would not treat them.

An image of historical muffin man Henry 'Harry' Dimsdale

The mention of ‘Sir’ Harry in that text refers to a mock election held in 1796 where he became Mayor of Garratt, a neighborhood located south of the River Thames between the modern neighborhoods of Wandsworth and Tooting.

Because it was a mock election, as per How to History on Substack

Mayors had no designated power or status, but the election gave the disenfranchised a voice to mock the electoral process, encouraging a feeling of fleeting contribution to political conversation; in this sense, the mayor was a real, if temporary, representative of those who did not have a vote.

These mock elections often took place around the time of actual elections, which is another reason for making those with no voice feeling a sense of power.

Apparently Harry did enjoy this title, though he died before what would have been the next election, which it turned out wouldn’t happen as his mock election was the last to take place in Garatt.

There’s not a whole lot we can find about who Harry was beyond him being a dwarf and a muffin man in Soho. And to be fair, if he wasn’t so eccentric, it’s unlikely he would be remembered at all. But there is another facet to this in that the poverty and treatment of people who are ‘different’ is littered with cruelty and I can only wonder what Harry would have been like if he had been treated more as human being versus still being called a fool today.

His use of the word languor to the magistrate denotes ‘tiredness’ which gives a little insight into what it would have felt like to do this job. Muffin men would have spent several hours a day carrying around their products, ringing a bell and shouting. Add in the fact they were people who likely came from little means and then some had infirmities or were ‘others’ so they would have regularly been denigrated. It’s only too easy to understand how Harry might have felt tired and wanted to drink away his sorrows.

The before times

The path from the inherently different English breads those muffin men were selling in the streets to the global modern day ones sold in almost every baked good section of supermarkets, petrol or gas stations, chain coffee shops starts with the usual introduction, the name.

The origins of the word for this quick bread, as per Wikipedia ?

One 19th-century source suggests that muffin may be related to the Greek bread maphula, a 'cake baked on a hearth or griddle', or from Old French mou-pain 'soft bread', which may have been altered into mouffin.

Though Emma Kay, in her book A History of British Baking - From Blood Bread to Bake-Off says

The word muffin either derives from a Saxon word for small cake. Muffe, or the old French word Mouffet, relating to a quick bread. The contemporary French word muffin, translates as a small round unsweetened cake, as does the contemporary German word. So, it's anyone's guess who gifted Britain the word.

And Epicurious notes that ?

you should know that muffins were once called moofins

Honestly, moofins is the most fun to say out of that selection, we should revisit it’s common use.

Now that we kind of know how it got it’s name, let’s consider where they first show up on the other side of the Atlantic. According to the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink by John F. Mariani

The term was first printed in English in 1703, and Hannah Glasse in her 1747 cookbook fives a recipe for making muffins. Mush muffins (called slipperdowns in New England) were a Colonial muffin made with hominy on a hanging griddle.

Hominy are large dried maize kernels treated with an alkali to make them more digestible. Traditionally consumed by Mesoamerican cultures throughout North and South America. As these mush muffins and a separate dish we’ll discuss in the Blueberry chapter were cooked on a griddle, it’s important to note this colonial muffin’s link to Native dishes. Particularly as Native food is not often connected to modern day American cuisine.

The type of muffin recipes Hannah Glasse included in her 1747 book more closely resemble the historical British type which aligns with what Foodtimeline notes ?

Early American muffin recipes were quite similar (if not exact copies) of English muffins.

These two dishes with the same names have a few markers that makes them different, such as English muffins using yeast and being an anytime of day type of food. Whilst it quickly became apparent that American muffins or the predecessor to modern day ones we know throughout the globe are more of a breakfast food and this is confirmed in this ‘History of the Muffin’ article

The main difference from their English "cousin" is that American muffins consistently use baking powder instead of yeast and are typically consumed hot or warm, often for breakfast but really at any time of day.

And thanks to History in the Making who actually made a batch of Fannie Merritt Farmer’s muffins from her 1896 The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook; not only did these original muffins include baking powder, but the batter is reminiscent more of something we would make in the mornings with the recipe tester commenting that it

reminds me more of drop biscuit dough than of muffin batter.

We’ve mentioned a griddle a few times as a way to make these old school muffins, but we all know them from their specific pan type. So when did we go from griddle or frying pan to the pan we know today?

Well, at the time of Hannah Glasse wrote her book in 1747, the method to cook them would have been that old school griddle method whilst times had moved on to using muffin rings or gem pans by the late 1800’s as Lon Walters reflects in the The Old West Baking Book

Muffins graduated from being cooked in a utensil called muffin rings to a special baking pans.

Thanks to how quickly the batter came together and once these pans came into regular use, it became easier to serve as individual items for breakfast without requiring hours of work. Add in the ease of access to sugar and fruit and muffins became something that went from being predominantly a domestic baked good to something that featured in bakeries, cafes and diners by the mid 20th Century. This is reflected in the article How the Muffin Became a Morning Staple

By the 19th century, American cookbooks were full of muffin recipes that used cornmeal, bran, or fruit. These variations made muffins an everyday food, perfect for busy mornings. The convenience of grabbing a muffin alongside a cup of coffee helped cement its role in American breakfast culture.

How ingredients affect a muffin

Before we get into the individual ingredients it’s important to note that muffins come in a variety of flavors and therefore they don’t all have the same ingredients. So, I decided to focus on a handful of websites that featured four of the same recipes and their similarities in main ingredients.

The four we’re going to be looking at today are arguably the most popular across the globe - blueberry, banana, bran and chocolate.

A side note that some of the recipes used in my references include add ins that won’t be mentioned unless there is a reason. As the ingredients featured are for consistency of main ingredients and what give the muffins their key texture and flavor. So that we can understand better how they all interact or even help us decide how to improve our muffins.

Additionally, the main factor of the sources used was that they had to have all four muffin recipes for consistency. Some of these recipes don’t have a huge number of ratings or they aren’t great recipes (as per the comments), but we are looking at the recipes more for data to gain a picture of common ingredients used so these 24 recipes will be referenced throughout and all are linked below.

Fats

In the book ‘How Baking Works’ by Paula Figoni, the following advice is given

For tender, cake-like muffins, use a plastic fat and cream it to lighten. For firm, dense yet moist muffins, use liquid oil or melted fat, lightly blended into dry ingredients.

The term plastic fat is used by professionals to refer to fats that are malleable, such as margarine or butter. So Paula is therefore saying creamed butter or margarine contributes to a tender crumb and cake-like structure whereas melted butter or oil provides moisture, but does make the structure of the muffins slightly more dense.

Tara from The Modern Crumb compared muffins made with butter and oil and noted:

The muffins made with butter had a richer taste than the ones made with oil.

They also had a crisper top.

The muffins made with oil had a really nice taste but were not as rich as the ones made with butter.

If you had given me just the oil muffin (without side by side tasting the butter muffin) I would have been happy as a clam with it! The taste was really good, but if you want a richer taste I would use the butter.

The muffins made with oil had a very light and soft texture, they were perfect! The texture of the oil muffins was superior to the texture of the butter muffins.

The temperature of butter in most baking recipes is incredibly important and can make a difference in how most bakes turn out if the temperature isn’t right, but as per the Serious Eats article Classic Blueberry Muffins

Chilly butter will make a batter incredibly stiff, which leads to excessive doming. While that's considered a major flaw in layer cakes, where the rounded tops must be trimmed away, doming increases the surface area of each muffin top, which most of us consider to be the best part.

Half of the muffin recipes in my research call for butter with a further 3 recipes calling for either butter or oil and one calling for both.

6 of the 12 recipes that called for butter called for it to be melted as did 2 of the 3 recipes that had either butter or oil option reflecting that due to muffins having minimal mixing time by using melted butter, in a similar way to oil - it mixes more easily throughout the batter.

All banana muffin recipes in my research called for butter which adds a complimentary flavor to the banana whereas 4 of the 6 recipes for chocolate muffins call for oil and the remaining two call for butter to be melted as cocoa powder, like bran, requires more hydration. But we’ll come back to bran in the flour chapter.

Back to the chocolate muffin for a minute though, as butter is a solid at room temperature and oil is not, this ensures they aren’t dry and is the reason why most chocolate muffin recipes will call for oil over butter. Additionally, most oils tend to have a more neutral flavor allowing the chocolate flavors in a way a butter based recipe doesn’t.

The muffin book website also notes that

Melted butter…naturally solidifies when the muffins cool. As a result they have a slightly denser texture than muffins made with oil.

There are a few factors to consider when using butter or oil, particularly if you want to use one but the recipe is calling for the other. If butter is called for, but it’s melted then it’s doing the job of oil in the mixing stage, but adding the perfect complimentary flavor and also solidifying so the dish isn’t too dense, once baked. Whilst oil can provide the necessary moisture and help bring out the flavors of the star ingredients better in some cases. If the recipe you have calls for butter, but you want to use oil or vice versa; it’s better to find a specific recipe that uses the fat you prefer, in the event the recipe doesn’t turn out.

Sugar

Sugar obviously is a sweetener, but it also pivotally helps balance out flavors and is hygroscopic - which means it attracts water. You might know about tossing berries and sugar into a bowl and soon there’s juice at the bottom of the bowl - that is the effect of the sugar in helping to draw the ambient moisture out of the fruit.

That characteristic in sugar can help muffins retain their moisture and as well as binding with the moisture in butter and eggs, sugar also plays with gluten development, keeping the crumb tender once baked. If you cut the sugar by half in a recipe and that’s the only change you make, you might notice that the overall result is somewhat dry - that can be because the sugar helps to provide moisture by drawing it out of other ingredients.

Most muffin recipes simply call for granulated white sugar and brown sugar for the batter.

Granulated sugar is also known as white sugar and is a neutral sweetener that doesn’t add any additional flavor beyond sweetening.

Thanks to the moisture from fat, eggs and other dairy such as milk, buttermilk, yogurt or sour cream being included in all the muffin recipes in my research, it’s clear the granulated or white sugar begins to dissolve before the baking phase even though most muffin recipes don’t require much mixing time.

The second type of sugar that is most often called for is light brown sugar which is most often simply refined white sugar with the addition of molasses. This combo retain’s moisture better than refined white sugar which helps give muffins a more tender denser texture with warm caramel undertones.

The difference between light and dark sugar is the amount of molasses which is almost double in dark brown versus light brown. This additional molasses imparts a stronger flavor which might not be to everyone’s liking, but these sugars can be used interchangeably in equal amounts.

As stated in the book Understanding Baking - The Art and Science of Baking by Joseph Amendola and Nicole Rees

Sugar in any form will contribute to crust color and browning in the oven, as the sugar along the hot surface caramelizes.

As the muffins bake the maillard reaction takes place changing the color to a golden brown, and the sugar is a key ingredient helping to create the environment needed for that beloved color and the flavor connected to it.

For bran muffins, we see a couple of the recipes call for honey and/or maple syrup which King Arthur Baking gives some great advice in their article A guide to different types of sugars, how to use them, and when to substitute

Liquid sweeteners like honey, molasses, and maple not only affect texture (which is pretty obvious, since you’re swapping out a dry ingredient for a liquid one) but also flavor. Liquid sweeteners are known as invert sugars, and they have different makeups of sucrose, glucose, and fructose; as a result, they contribute varying levels of sweetness, browning, and moisture retention.

In a separate King Arthur Baking article, they did some testing with liquid sweeteners and the results using molasses in their muffins were

Muffins made with liquid sweeteners will rise nicely and have a slightly more coarse crumb.

In this case the molasses created a denser muffin due to the moisture and created a dark brown color. The color of your liquid sweetener would obviously affect the overall color of the baked muffins and the texture would be denser than using regular sugar.

Overall the lesson is that if you prefer a denser muffin you can replace or do a mixture of regular sugar and liquid sweeteners, though they don’t all equally replace sugar so make sure you’re doing the right conversion when making this change.

To round out this chapter, lots of muffin recipes also call for demerara or turbinado also known as raw sugar for the tops. These are rough granulated sugars that bake up nice and crunchy thanks to their large granules, giving a nice textural difference to the soft interior.

According to King Arthur Baking Demerara is a A guide to different types of sugars, how to use them, and when to substitute

less-processed version of granulated sugar, Demerara sugar contains some molasses, making it similar to brown sugar in taste, while in texture it’s more like sanding sugar

If you don’t much care for that textural difference or you prefer a muffin with a streusel topping you could easily omit using one of these large granulated sugars on the top of your muffins.

Eggs

In order to understand what they do, we’re going to break an egg down into it’s two main parts - egg yolks add fat alongside butter or oil, and other dairy ingredients. The proteins within the yolks thicken better at room temperature to bind with our other ingredients as well as delaying gluten development making for that perfect texture and crumb during the baking phase.

Egg whites are approximately 90% water so the sugar will attract the water in the same way as it does with butter or other dairy components to provide the necessary moisture.

Overall eggs help provide bind everything together as well as add moisture and as they cook they expand which is a type of natural leavener to raise muffins as they bake. They also are a source for them baking up nice and golden. A whole egg is pretty much a perfect ingredient to help in all areas for the making, baking and eating phases.

It’s not common to see muffin recipes calling for only egg yolks or whites, so it might be better to refer to a specific recipe if you happen to have a hankering for muffins with one or the other, because you have some extras laying around your kitchen.

Flour

There are really only two types of flour called for in most muffin recipes and that is either plain or all purpose and for some recipes such as bran or banana muffins, whole wheat or wholemeal flour which is interchangeable as they’re effectively the same.

Plain or all purpose flour has an average protein level of 10-12% (this can vary from country to country, so if you’re unsure, definitely check what yours is nationally). This protein amount of 10-12% contributes to a tender texture, that signature crumb that makes muffins beloved and helps in creating the perfect golden exterior.

The more protein a flour has, the easier it is to activate the gluten once moisture is added and that gluten forms stronger bonds as we mix. So the gluten formation in flour is another reason why it’s one of the last ingredients usually to be mixed through our batter.

Not one of the 24 recipes in my research called for cake or bread flours and this is due to what these flours would contribute, if used. Cake flour has a low protein amount which means the crumb would likely be too tender and the color very pale. Whilst bread flour would give our muffins a chewier and denser texture with a slightly darker overall appearance.

Four of the six recipes for bran muffins used whole wheat flour with 2 using a mixture of plain and whole wheat and 2 using only whole wheat alongside their bran. This is often an ingredient in bran muffins as the nutty texture is complementary to the bran and is higher in fibre.

As whole wheat includes bran within it, it bakes up more dense and requires more moisture as it absorbs more water than plain or all-purpose flour.

Out of the six recipes for Bran muffins we see two recipes - King Arthur Baking hydrating half the wheat bran with boiling water, whilst Serious Eats does this with all their wheat bran. And 4 of the 6 recipes call for oil to help provide that extra hydration needed to make a great bran muffin and to ensure once baked they don’t dry out because oil is liquid at room temperature. Sally’s Baking Addiction also calls for applesauce and Simply Recipes doing the same or mashed banana, which reflects how essential extra moisture is to a bran muffin thanks to the bran and/or whole wheat flour absorption.

If you’re trying to be healthier and want a recipe that only uses whole wheat or wholemeal flour, Sally’s Baking Addiction is a great place to start as her Bran recipe doesn’t use any plain flour.

Healthy Bran Muffins by Sally's Baking Addiction

Other Dairy

Most muffin recipes will call for either milk, buttermilk, yogurt or sour cream or a combination of any two of those ingredients so we’re going to consider how each of these affect our muffins.

When we consider 13 of the 24 muffin recipes in my research called for milk, let’s clarify the type of milk most often called for in these types of recipes.

Quoting from the book Understanding baking - The Art and Science of Baking by Joseph Amendola and Nicole Rees

If a recipe calls simply for milk, it is referring to whole milk. Whole milk has 3.5 percent fat, and is called whole because it resembles the milk taken straight from the cow, before any cream has been removed.

So now we know the type, what does milk do in the muffins?

It’s best explained in the book On Baking by Sarah Labensky, Priscilla A. Martel & Eddy van Damme

Liquids such as water, milk, juice and eggs bring moisture to the mixture. Moisture is necessary for gluten formation and starch gelatinization, as well as for improving a cake's keeping qualities.

Basically where one of these dairy ingredients is called for it helps not only add more moisture to the muffins, but also interacts with the flour as it bakes to provide the right texture or beloved crumb, as well as providing a richer flavor (than say water) and helps ensure the moisture is retained once baked.

For those who cannot consume milk or prefer consuming non daily milk, thankfully King Arthur Baking tested out their basic muffin recipe with six different non dairy milks - soy, coconut, cashew, almond, oat and pea milks and found Non-dairy milk for baking: What’s the best choice?

All of the vegan milks proved a seamless substitute. Rise, texture, mouthfeel, flavor, and browning were the same.

So whichever milk you want to use in a recipe, go ahead!

Now that we’ve covered milk, what about sour cream, yogurt and buttermilk, what does each of these contribute in a muffin recipe?

As Neme’s Kitchen in their Baking Institution post notes that

Sour cream adds a velvety, creamy texture to baked goods. Its high fat content contributes to moistness in cakes, muffins, and quick breads. Baked goods made with sour cream tend to be tender and soft.

Whilst Allrecipes have a great and thorough article entitled Why use Sour Cream in Baking

Sour cream adds moisture without thinning your batter the same way that a liquid would. That fact that sour cream delivers moisture without further thinning out a batter results in a cake with a very tender, very fine crumb.

Additionally, it’s helpful to note the interaction with raising agents when sour cream is called for or used in a baking recipe

For one, the acid content helps to tenderize gluten strands (the structural protein architecture in your baked goods), resulting in a more tender final product. Additionally, you'll notice that baking recipes containing sour cream often rely on baking soda as a leavener, as the acid content of sour cream allows it to activate baking soda's leavening powers.

We’re going to set sour cream to the side for the moment and consider yogurt, or most specifically Greek yogurt in a muffin recipe because in the 24 reference recipes, only 4 call for either/or sour cream or yogurt so it’s helpful to understand what the difference is in our baked good.

Neme’s Kitchen in their Baking Institution post states

Greek yogurt, especially the full-fat variety, provides moisture and a dense, creamy texture. It can make your baked goods moist without adding as much fat as sour cream. Greek yogurt is less tangy compared to sour cream, making it a versatile choice for a wide range of recipes.

And the article Why use Sour Cream in Baking from AllRecipes notes that

Greek yogurt is often suggested as the most viable substitute for sour cream. This makes sense in that they are texturally similar — though whole-fat Greek yogurt has a notably lower fat content (more on par with whole milk and buttermilk).

So when substituting, just keep in mind: Sour cream = more dense and rich; Greek yogurt = more airy and moist.

Sour cream and Greek yogurt can be substituted in equal measure so if you’re using one or have a preference it’s best to understand what you want to achieve in your baked good. For example, a bran muffin is naturally dense due to the fact bran and wholewheat require more moisture so using Greek yogurt would help create a lighter overall texture to the baked muffin.

Buttermilk is poured into a glass in image from Southern Living

Finally let’s consider Buttermillk.

If you’ve ever wondered what buttermilk is, well Sally’s Baking Addiction says it better than I could

Buttermilk is fermented milk. Traditionally, it was a byproduct of making butter; the liquid leftover after churning fat out of cream was left out to ferment.

Before we dig into buttermilk in our muffins I’m going to say something controversial, homemade buttermilk in baked goods is never as good as store-bought buttermilk. Store-bought is created in a controlled environment and guarantees it has the right and consistent cultures for the best rise and overall outcome in our baked goods.

Homemade buttermilk is always a fine substitute when the recipe is not going to be baked, such as pancakes. But for any recipes that call for buttermilk that require baking, rely on store-bought and if you have leftovers, which is often the complaint when people homemake their buttermilk - you can whip pancakes or a small batch of Southern biscuits.

So what does buttermilk do in our baking, referring to Sally’s Baking Addiction once more

Buttermilk’s lactic acid, as well as its tangy flavor and creamy consistency, does so much for baked goods. The acid reacts with baking soda to produce carbon dioxide bubbles, which leaven the batter or dough, resulting in lighter, fluffier textures in biscuits, muffins, cakes, and buttermilk waffles.

Buttermilk offers similar acid levels as sour cream (a bit more, even), thus it can offer similar effects.

Out of the four types of muffins in my research only the bran muffins call for buttermilk with 4 out of the 6 muffins requiring it. But you might be wondering how the fat content compares to the other dairy ingredients which AllRecipes note in their article Why use Sour Cream in Baking

Per (8-ounce) cup, both whole milk and whole buttermilk contain roughly, a little over 8 grams of total fat. Comparatively, 8 ounces of full-fat sour cream offers closer to 45 grams of fat.

Buttermilk and milk can be used interchangeably, however, this is where baking becomes a bit scientific (the secret is it’s always scientific) thanks to The Spruce Eats

When using baking powder, however, take care in substituting buttermilk for regular milk as it upsets the balance of alkali to acid.

If we just decide to replace buttermilk with milk and don’t account for the loss of acid from that buttermilk it can offset the raising agent and potentially create a different result than what the recipe suggests, so it’s best to find a different recipe or do research on how to make the recipe with the right level of raising agents. There is also a rather comprehensive article by Serious Eats diving into buttermilk substitutes and Stella the writer is more passionate than I about it.

Raising Agents

Most often there will be one or two raising agents specified in a recipe, so we’re going to single them out.

Baking powder

Baking powder is traditionally made up of three ingredients - a base such as baking soda, an acid such as cream of tartar and a starch that acts as a buffer between the other two ingredients such as cornstarch. Because it includes a base and acid it will react without requiring acidic ingredients in a recipe, but we’re going to come back to that in a second.

Almost all the baking powders on the market now have a double rise factor, which means it is firstly activated when the baking powder is mixed with liquid and then the second activation or rise takes place during baking. Most muffin recipes require baking as soon as your batter is made which means the baking powder won’t lose it’s raising action. When a recipe does require resting, it is usually calling for refrigeration, which will significantly slow down the reaction rate meaning that by the time the batter is baked it’ll raise virtually the same as if baked straight away.

Baking soda

Baking soda also known as bicarbonate of soda or sodium bicarbonate is a leavening or rising agent that is not acidic.

So, what does that mean? If a recipe includes brown sugar, yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream or cocoa powder, these are acidic ingredients that help the baking soda react creating carbon dioxide and helping them rise during the baking process.

Additionally, because baked goods brown better in an alkaline environment which is created when we add baking soda ,it helps to give our muffins a nice golden exterior alongside butter, sugar, eggs and flour.

Baking powder versus baking soda

Firstly, baking soda and baking powder are not interchangeable. Whilst they are both raising agents, they work in different ways to make a recipe successful.

If a recipes calls for both ingredients than there is likely an acid in the recipe, but the chemical reaction from the baking soda isn’t enough to give your dish, in this case muffins, the necessary lift. This is often the reason you want to bake your batter as soon as it’s been prepared and not leave it out for several hours as the reaction from the rising agents begins once they come into contact with moisture.

Baking soda is 3-4x stronger than baking powder and too much can create a metallic or soapy taste in a recipe.

A good rule of thumb is to use 1 gram or ¼ teaspoon baking soda to 4 grams or 1 teaspoon of baking powder per 160 grams or 1 cup of plain flour.

Both lose their effectiveness within 6 months of being opened, so it’s best to test if yours is still effective before adding to your baking.

Blueberries

I’m not going to go into all adds in for muffins because that could be a very long list, but blueberry muffins might be the typical muffin you order or make at home, so it’s important to consider their origins and some tips and tricks to better blueberry muffins.

The likelihood of the connection for blueberry muffins and native people’s traditions of cooking with native ingredients is pretty strong, particularly as blueberries are native to North America. So they would naturally have been an ingredient added into dishes and then muffin batter at some point, though it seems difficult to pinpoint when exactly this was.

According to Foodtimeline

"A favorite dish of the Native Americans during colonial times was Sautauthig (pronounced saw-taw-teeg), a simple pudding made with dried, crushed blueberries, dried, cracked corn(or samp), and water. Later, the settlers added milk, butter and sugar when they were available. The Pilgrims loved Sautauthig and many historians believe that it was part of the first Thanksgiving feast. In a letter to friends back in England, one colonist describes how Sauthauthig was prepared: "...this is to be boyled or stued with a gentle fire, till it be tender, of a fitt consistence, as of Rice so boyled, into which Milke, or butter be put either with sugar or without it, it is a food very pleasant...but it must be observed that it be very well boyled, the longer the better, some will let it be stuing the whole day: after it is Cold it groweth thicker, and is commonly Eaten by mixing a good Quantity of Milke amongst it."

The three main ingredients we see in the Native American version was dried blueberries, cracked corn or samp which is dried corn roughly crushed and water. Once the rough pieces of cracked corn or samp are cooked for some time they turn into a soft starch which would have made this stovetop pudding style dish, similar to what a modern day muffin batter would be. Particularly when colonizers added milk, butter and sugar to the dish.

That tidbit of information is important because it probably did lead to blueberry muffins becoming a thing and so often Native cuisine is not even factored into what makes up American food and that is why I’m including it here.

One of the most often mentioned elements of blueberry muffins is tossing the berries in flour to stop the berries from sinking to the bottom of the batter and stop them coloring the rest of the dough, which is an effect called bleeding.

Many people have recipes that call for tossing the blueberries in flour to coat them before mixing through the batter. Though Serious Eats article Muffin Myth-Busting: Don't Waste Your Time Tossing Berries in Flour

While the flour toss does seem to minimize bleeding in the muffins, that's only a benefit if the berries are tossed with a portion of flour reserved from the recipe itself; otherwise, extra flour will only make blueberry muffins seem dry.

So if you don’t toss the blueberries in flour, what does Serious Eats suggest you do to avoid the blueberries sinking to the bottom of the pan?

Before stirring the blueberries through the batter a heaped tablespoon amount of plain batter is dropped into each muffin cup. As per this image it’s pretty clear you’ve got a solid portion of muffin with no fruit, so personally, I recommend doing a smaller portion, but you do you here. If you don’t care about your berries bleeding, then simply disregard this info.

Chocolate

Lastly, I wanted to discuss chocolate muffins as the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris had no greater celebrity than the Chocolate Muffin. It began with Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen’s obsession with the muffins and it becoming so viral many at home became obsessed too. In fact, by the time the muffins became so popular online Henrik was now known as the ‘Muffin Man’. how times have changed from the original ones mentioned earlier!

We’re going to speak about standard chocolate muffins before we get to the Olympic ones.

I spoke about the type of fats most often called for in these muffins in that chapter so won’t rehash here.

In my research all of the chocolate muffin recipes called for milk and three call for other dairy - two calling for yogurt and one calling for yogurt or sour cream. This is because cocoa powder can absorb up to 100% of it’s weight (if we’re comparing cocoa powder and flour, flour has a water absorption rate of 40%). This is why more liquid is required in a chocolate muffin recipe versus a blueberry, for example.

Of the six recipes, two call for unsweetened natural cocoa powder, one simply says unsweetened cocoa powder, two don’t define the cocoa powder and the last calls for Dutch process cocoa powder.

As there are two types of cocoa powder called for here, it’s best to understand them as according to Baker’s Authority

they’re not always interchangeable

Unsweetened cocoa powder most often refers to natural cocoa powder which tends to be light brown in color, often with a reddish hue.

Whilst Dutch process

also called alkalized cocoa—has been treated with a potassium carbonate solution to neutralize its acidity.

The color is often incredibly dark or almost black and it is also most often found to be unsweetened, but when called for will be called for as ‘Dutch process’ not unsweetened.

The key difference between the two is actually not the color, but how they interact in our baking as natural cocoa powder is acidic whilst Dutch is neutral or slightly alkaline.

If you want to use one instead of the other, Baker’s Authority is helpful in what to use when replacing in a recipe When replacing Natural with Dutch process:

Use the same amount of Dutch-process cocoa, but swap the baking soda with twice the amount of baking powder.

Whilst replacing Dutch with natural:

Use the same amount of natural cocoa, but replace baking powder with half the amount of baking soda.

All of the recipes in my research called for chocolate chips in addition to really intensify and add dimension to the chocolate flavor.

Muffins and cake are virtually the same in many ways, and nowhere is it so apparent as to a chocolate muffin. Particularly with that Olympic muffin with it’s large pieces of chocolate and the gooey fudge center.

Kassie Mendieta from I Bake Mistakes substack is probably the best person to have developed a version of these muffins during the height of their popularity in 2024.

If you haven’t encountered Kassie’s work, then let me say she is an incredible baker and recipe developer who did 12 rounds of testing after spending hours dissecting every possible video she could get her hands on and what she created is a thing of beauty!

Paris Olympics Chocolate Muffin by I Bake Mistakes

In usual Kassie style she provides plenty of tips for you to make the best version in your own home.

Her recipe calls for both cocoa types, though the majority of flavor is reliant on one specific one.

The cocoa here matters, it’s dutch processed which gives a robust chocolate flavor, a deeper brown color the the muffin.

and

Letting the batter rest before baking really helps with the rise and over-all texture of the muffin. Time allows the starches to absorb liquids.

The link for her recipe and all the information is included in the caption below under the Chocolate chapter heading.

Making a batch

Now we’ve covered the essentials let’s talk about making a batch. So many instructions in my research stand out and a few keys between a great muffin and not so great one include

Don’t Overmix

According to AllRecipes

For the moistest muffins, be careful not to overmix the batter; stir just until the dry ingredients are incorporated.

And Erin Jeanne McDowell repeats this advice in the article Muffin Tips from a Baker Who Has Made Thousands

The more you mix, the more the batter will develop gluten—those dangerous protein strands which are desirable for bread baking but can make a muffin unnecessarily tough.

As mentioned in the flour chapter, the reason flour is often one of the last ingredients to be added to a batter is for good reason and one of the easiest ways to avoid overmixing is to simply work slowly.

Don’t overbake

Muffins are best enjoyed if they bake for the time recommended in the recipe and only longer if a toothpick inserted comes out not fully baked.

Baking muffins with a gap between in the pan

According to AllRecipes

Do not overbake! Remove the muffins as soon as a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Let them cool briefly in the pan before transferring to a rack to finish cooling, which helps them set without drying out.

Additionally, many bakers recommend putting the batter into muffin tins with a gap between so they can bake more evenly. Though Erin Jeanne McDowell actually has a way around needing a muffin tin

To get a bakery-style, big ol' muffins, I use freestanding paper baking cups.

They don’t need to be put in muffin pans, and can simply stand alone on a baking sheet—so there’s no need for a special size pan to get massive muffins of greatness!

If you are just getting into baking and have a baking tray on hand you could try this method before forking out money on a tin. Not everyone has the money or the space in their kitchens for things they aren’t always going to use and so this is a great work around.

Finally

If you’re making a batch of banana muffins then melted butter is ideal in the mixing phase, but solidifies and adds complimentary flavor once baked.

Whilst oil is better in chocolate and bran recipes adding both hydration and keeping the muffins moist once baked.

Granulated sugar works best in most muffins, though brown sugar is complimentary in banana recipes most specifically. Course sugars are a perfect textural difference for the tops though streusels are also fantastic.

Where milk is called for both dairy and non dairy work in creating the same texture, flavor and browning. And Greek yogurt and sour cream can be used interchangeably, though sour cream creates a denser and richer flavor whilst yogurt results in a more airy and moist texture.

Knowing this helps you figure out which ingredients to reach for the next time you want to whip up a batch. If you’ve been making the same batch for some time, but feel it’s missing something and it calls for yogurt, try it with sour cream or if you instinctually toss blueberries into extra flour, try a batch without. Baking is the ultimate act of playing with your food and if it fails, you’ll still be able to slather them with butter or even turn them into a bread and butter pudding, muffin style.

Lastly, from the Epicurious article on a muffin I didn’t even mention What’s the Story of the Morning Glory? This Muffin Has Tales to Tell ?

Muffins are best right after they’re cooked. If you still have a few muffins around in the following days, Pellicano says, “Cut them open, griddle, and slather them in butter, and you’ll be a happy camper still.”

If you won’t or can’t eat them quickly, wrap tightly and freeze.

Muffins are a beloved treat for good reason and have been so for decades. They aren’t constantly going viral, but their popularity in homes throughout the globe can’t be denied. They’re the ideal portal to eat cake for breakfast or simply use up those bananas sitting in that bowl.

If you’ve watched this all the way through, thank you so much for your time. See you in the next one, thanks, Ka kite an? and tschüss