Cooking Tips: Muffins
Mix wet and dry ingredients separately and then combine them just to mix. Over-mixing muffins makes them tough, crumbly and riddled with air pockets.
For light and airy muffins, bake the batter immediately. If batter sits unbaked the leavening power of the baking soda or baking powder will diminish, making a heavy, dense muffin.
Crisco® No-Stick Cooking Spray makes muffins release easily from the tin. If you like to use paper liners, spray them, too, to avoid the muffin sticking to the paper.
To make muffins a uniform size, use an ice cream scoop or measuring cup to evenly portion the batter. A mini muffin cup holds about 2 tablespoons of batter. A standard muffin tin holds about 1/2 cup.
Muffins freeze beautifully when well wrapped in foil and placed inside a re-sealable plastic bag.
You can also freeze the batter for quick and easy muffins any time. Portion the batter into foil baking cups. Freeze them in the tins. Once frozen, remove them from the tins and store the unbaked muffins in a large re-sealable bag marked with the baking directions. Pop the frozen muffins back in the tins before baking. Add 10 minutes to the bake time of frozen, unbaked muffins.
All ingredients should be at room temperature before proceeding with the recipe.
Measure and mix all dry ingredients into one bowl. In a separate bowl, combine all the wet ingredients.
Gently fold in any additions (nuts, raisins, etc.) at the end.