I made two recipes of blueberry muffins the other night, to compare them side by side. I made one batch using a Cook's Illustrated recipe that called for creaming the butter and sugar and then adding wet and dry ingredients alternating in stages. The other recipe I used was by Alton Brown. His method was similar to a pancake batter--mix all the dry together and all the wet together, and then combine just until moistened. Both recipes used the exact same ingredient list in the same quanties (roughly).
I preferred the CI recipe for its cake-like texture, whereas the AB recipe was a more hearty texture. The only problem, was that the CI recipe was so delicate, that I couldn't get the muffins out of the tin in one piece. I greased the tin well with a non-stick spray beforehand, and cooled them for a couple minuted after baking before attempting to get them out of the tin. Is there anything I can do to give them more structural integrity, or something that will make getting them out of the tin easier. My current method is covering with a tea towel and then inverting the entire tin and hoping that they fall out. The AB muffins did, but only the tops of the CI muffins came out of the tin. Thanks,
Scott