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Muffin recipe question

I baked a batch of raspberry white chocolate muffins today, recipe courtesy of the innkeeper at the B&B we stayed at this past weekend and unfortunately it tasted nothing like what we ate at the B&B! I'm pretty confident that the recipe (well, ingredient list) that the innkeeper gave was what he used and if something was missing from the list, then it was an oversight more than an unwillingness to share the secret recipe.

Anyway, here are the differences between his and my muffins:

MINE very light in colour more flavourful upon first bite I thought I could taste butter but no butter in the recipe

HIS much more brown than mine somewhat "crusty" on the exterior as if there were more sugar and fat in it sweeter buttery tasted more full-fat than mine even though I used exactly what he said to use

The ingredients were: all purpose flour whole wheat flour baking powder baking soda sugar eggs vanilla oil whole milk buttermilk

The recipe didn't call for salt - does salt help brown quickbreads at all? It called for both baking soda and baking powder. Also, while there was no butter in the ingredient list, I thought the muffins tasted buttery. It does call for buttermilk, though. I followed his ingredient list and the instructions he gave me to a T as he explained the recipe to me.

So, anyone have any idea what could be missing? I know I didn't add amounts - didn't want to give his recipe away without his permission.

N.

Reply to
spamalicious
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I assume you have just not included white chocolate or raspberrys in the list of ingredients but did include in your muffins.

The buttermilk should make them more buttery, perhaps you didn't have the same type buttermilk.

The crusty top does seem like he used more sugar.

Reply to
Cake Wmn

My thought was that the crust difference could be due to flour measuring differences and over-mixing.

too much or too little flour will obviously affect the texture. The other point - traditionally when making american muffins, the flour and dry leavening agents are mixed fully and then the rest of it is just sort of dumped together into a lumpy mix. This can result in a crusty texture on the top.

Reply to
Eric Jorgensen

Well, I should learn better than to post on a frazzled brain. My muffins were certainly not more flavourful than those of the innkeeper - flavourLESS is more like it. And there was no butter taste in my muffins either.

Thanks for the suggestions so far - I'll have to experiment again.

N.

Reply to
spamalicious

spamalicious: wrote

well, I hope you find what you are looking for.

I have been using this recipe for years, from the Landolakes website:

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good, my guests seem to inhale them. HTH,

Petra in Hamburg, Germany

Reply to
Petra Hildebrandt

My suspicion is that he gave you a different recipe than his own. ~Peggy

Reply to
Peggy

Eric Jorgensen wrote: > My thought was that the crust difference could be due to flour measuring

Eric gets the prize for the closest answer without going over! :)

I made another batch this a.m. (yup, at 4:00 am...) and the end result was "pretty close to the same" as the innkeeper's muffins as my husband put it.

I changed a few things in my technique: - I spooned the flour into the measuring cup instead of scooping the flour with the m. cup - I added the fruit and chocolate to the dry mix first - I added the wet ingredients last, mixing only until the liquid was incorporated into the dry ingredients - I also added a pinch of salt - don't know if that made a difference.

I had also increased the preheating temp of my oven to 400F and when I was ready to put the muffin tins in, I decreased the temp to the recipe's baking temp. I read that tip here.

The muffins were nicely browned and crusty on the exterior and fluffy on the inside. What a huge difference from my first anemic batch of muffins.

I think the flour measuring and mixing made the biggest difference. Not sure if anything else did, but I won't be changing anything the next time I make these. :)

Thanks all!

N.

Reply to
spamalicious

I didn't follow this thread, but if no one mentioned it yet, you might try using one of the low gluten AP flours popular in the south, such as White Lily.

Reply to
Vox Humana

Seems like you got the recipe figure out. Just wanted to add my two cents.

Baking temp has a lot to do with browning and fast rise. Raising the temp to 400 is a good idea for home bakers making muffins.

I suspect he is using a professional oven that is MUCH hotter than what we use at home. 350 in a professional convection oven is probably close to 400 for home appliances.

Also to note, different flour brands will definitely change the final product. I only bake with King Arthur, unbleached white flour. I love it!

Julie

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Reply to
Julie

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