Last week, I decided to bake muffins to give to a class as a mini-encouragement before their Mid-Year Exams. They’ll be having back-to-back exams soon, what with the N Levels starting very early in July.
I tried using the recipe from here, and the reviews were all wonderful. However, when I baked them, they were a little dense. It’s alright if you want to use your muffins to mop up gravies, but my idea of muffins is more cake-like. Hence, I went online, and searched for Nigella Lawson’s muffin recipes and what do you know, they turned out great. I still think they were a wee bit dry, but my colleagues said they were alright (most likely they were just being polite). I’ve a feeling the dryness has nothing to do with Nigella’s recipe but rather our high humidity which dries out the flour very fast.
The secret to baking good muffins is not to over mix the ingredients. And, I’ve figured out that muffins are simply mixing in wet ingredients into dry ones, and because of this, you can experiment on what ingredients you want.
The perfect basic recipe for me is (after doing some research)
Dry
1. 1 and 3/4 cups flour
2. 3/4 cup sugar
3. 2 tsp baking powder
4. 1/2 tsp baking soda
5. 1 tsp salt
Wet
1. 1 cup milk
2. 1/4 vegetable oil
3. 1 egg
Once you have a basic mother recipe, you can add or substitute any ingredient you want and come up with new creations. I’m going to try out many other muffin recipes, especially cheesy ones. I’ve a feeling my cooking ambitions will only be realised during the June holidays.
The Occasional Cook 