大象传媒

Each type owes its final result to the proportion of fat, flour, liquid and sugar, and to some extent the individual characteristics of each ingredient. For example, the bleached all-purpose flour available from some of the bigger American millers (it鈥檚 not sold here by law) has the curious ability to hold more fat and sugar in suspension compared to out UK plain flour. The type of sugar you use can affect the way the muffin curves on top, as dark brown sugar can cause the muffin top to flatten. And if you use a cooking margarine rather than butter, you do get a lighter crumb from the emulsifiers it contains.

I asked Andrew Janjigian, associate editor at , where they鈥檙e obsessed with finding the most foolproof way to bake everything, about the common mistake they see in muffins. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e either far too delicate and overly rich,鈥� says Andrew, 鈥渙r dry, crumbly and dense. People mistakenly think that since muffins are a breakfast food, they should be ultra-healthy, and then don't make them rich enough.鈥� So it鈥檚 the middle ground you want in the best muffin, says Andrew, avoiding extremes but 鈥渃loser to a quick bread than a cupcake鈥�.
听
Getting that really lofty rise to your muffin is often just down to baking it right. 鈥淛ust like with bread,鈥� says Andrew, 鈥渢he key to a high rise muffin is getting the mixture to spring upward in the oven. That means setting the oven temperature higher than you might otherwise, letting ingredients or the batter come to room temperature before baking, and even placing the muffin tin on a preheated pizza stone.鈥�
听
One last big tip. Keep you flavour on the dry side and intense for the best flavour, use slightly more spices, flavourings and what factory bakers call 鈥渋nclusions鈥�, or 鈥渢he bits you stir in鈥� in plain English. So more chocolate chips, more blueberries鈥ou get the idea. Instead of stirring the pieces of fruit or chocolate through the mixture, try alternating small spoonfuls of the mixture with pieces into the paper cases. This will control just where the pieces end up after baking.

听When we made Paul Hollywood's blueberry muffins, all the berries went on top for show!

So here are my key tweaks for perfecting your muffins:

• If the muffin top is too flat and smooth, try slightly reducing the sugar and fat in the recipe by 20% to see if that makes a difference.
• If the crumb of the muffin is too dense, try slightly increasing the amount of egg (especially egg white), slightly decrease the flour, and for every 150g wheat flour replace two heaped teaspoons of flour with the same measure of cornflour. This helps to create a finer crumb structure.
• If the crumb of the muffin is too coarse, try reducing the number of times you fold in the flour. As you fold in the flour, count 30 beats of the spatula through the mixture. You maw still see a few lumps when you spoon the batter into the paper case, but your muffin crumb will be more delicate.
• If your muffin bakes a little dry, increase the oven temperature and decrease the baking time.

Do you have a favourite method for achieving the ultimate muffin? Let us know.

Muffin round-up:

• The Balanced Pastry Chef鈥檚
• Alton Brown鈥檚 Blueberry (Fold to the count of ten)
• Brilliant Cakespy post on
• Delia Smith crosses the streams with