The Ultimate Muffin

hughallen

 I'm currently trying to develop a recipe for the Ultimate Muffin, in my opinion a Muffin should be big with a stupidly sized muffin top, not too sweet, not dense but also not ovally airy, and also you shouldn't need the aid of a spread to eat it. It needs to be moist! i've been trying to get the perfect combination of ingredients for a muffin base but I'm a little stuck.

so far this is where Im at. Im using cake flour i think it gives it a more tender crumb. For the fats Im using clarified butter, I tried oil vs butter oil gave it a better texture and butter a better flavor, then gave clarifying the butter to separate the milk solids and water from the butterfat, it gave it a more oil like texture but still with the buttery taste (or am i just imagining it) but questions i cant answer is it better to cream the butter and sugar or is it better to use the traditional muffin method (dry ingredient mix with wet)  What sugar should you use, what leavening agents are best if you want a lot of rise, should you add buttermilk or cream?? could you guys help me out? i was looking at the ingredients in industrial made muffins? they include ingredients such as distilled monoglyceride, vegetable shortening, Butylated hydroxyanisole, Sodium carbonate, Sodium aluminum phosphate, Sodium stearoyl lactylate, vegetable gums, egg pulp and Potassium sorbate whats the reasons for these ingredients? should they be included? 

Heres i basic muffin mix recipe I'm at so far, but please add your best muffin recipe or give advice on how to enhance it. thanks

240 g unrefined caster sugar

218 g cake flour

30 g milk powder 

5 g baking powder

2 g salt 

0.6 g xanthan gum

175 g clarified butter

150 g eggs

4 g vanilla paste

75 g butter milk 

zest of one lemon or lime 

Add all the liquid ingredients into the bowl. The dry ingredients are weighed,
sieved and added to the bowl.

Stir all ingredients (except the oil) until just combined. Add the oil and then
stir until incorporated.

bake @ 190.C for around 20-25 min 

Chris_Young_80640

Here is some general information on the role various ingredients play in muffins:

Flour: Muffins generally contain much less sugar than a cake, and therefore do not necessarily require the use of a cake flour. Most muffins, in fact, need a stronger flour in order to get the desired shape and crumb structure. Many muffin formulas that I've seen contain a blend of cake or pastry flour with a higher protein hard wheat or bread flour (11 to 12% protein), or even are made from all bread flour. The addition of the stronger flour will give you a slightly chewier, resilient crumb texture, as well as a more defined dome or bell shape to the muffin.

Sugar: Adds sweetness, obviously. In addition, it influences the temperature of starch gelatinization, which influences the baking properties and how much leaving agent is required. Sugar is really effective at tenderizing the crumb and making the muffin "moist eating". Sucrose (caster sugar) is a so-called non-reducing sugar, which menas that even at high levels found in muffins, does not contribute a lot to the crust color. Adding a reducing sugar like dextrose (glucose), glucose syrup, fructose, honey will contribute a lot to the crust color, even ad very low levels. So a lot of muffin forumlas include 1% to 3% of a reducing-type sugar for a more appealing crust color. 

Fat: As with most chemically leavened (versus yeast leavened baked products) the function of fat or oil is to provide tenderness to the muffin. The kind of fat or oil used also effects shelf life (fats or oils that go rancid quickly are going to give you a short shelf life). Most muffins are made with partialy hydrogenated vegetable shortening (rather than butter oil) because you get a better crumb structure. Pure butter oil tends to drain away to quickly in the baking process. If you want to use all butter, you can sometimes find high-melting point butter for puff pastry work (L'Escure makes some for this purpose). Otherwise, vegetable shortening will often give a better result than pure butter. 

Emulsifiers: Distilled monoglycerides are an example of an emulsifier. The can help extend the shelf life and they can also help reduce how much egg needs to be added. Eggs add lecithin, and so are a source of emulsifier in many muffin recipes. If you want to remove the egg, monoglycerides are a really good subsitute (better than lecithin actually). They allow increased fat or oil in the recipe without the crumb structure collapsing.

Eggs: Eggs add proteins that contribute to the structure of the crumb. The natural fat and lecithin in egg yolks also contribute to the tenderness and eating quality of the muffin. And, of course, they add an eggy flavor that may or may not be desirable.

Milk: This protein contributes to structure and improves the resilience of the muffin. The lactose in the milk is a reducing sugar that contributes, along with the protein, to the crust color through the Maillard reaction.

Chemical Leavening: Most muffins have a leavening system that contains both baking soda (sodium bicrarbonate) and a leavening acid at very specific ratio to keep the pH neutral. Usually as cooks we just add baking powder that has blended everything in the correct ratios for us. But not all leavening systems (baking powders) are the same, and this is where a lot of food engineering can occur. Depending on the acid used, the CO2 can be generated at different rates and at different temperatures, which hugely influences everything about the muffin. Monocalcium phosphate is the acid you'll see in some baking powders, it's fast acting acid which causes the CO2 to be generated during mixing and early baking. 

The release of carbon dioxide during mixing is desirable to establish the tiny bubbles in the batter that will swell with more CO2 gas and steam formed later during baking. Getting gas bubbles into the batter early also helps to thicken the batter and maintain proper suspension of things like fruit pieces, chocolate chips, etc. during baking. 

Intermediate leavening acids, such as sodium acid pyrophosphate 28-40, and slower acting acids, such as sodium acid pyrophosphate 4 or sodium aluminum phosphate, are also common in muffin formulas. The choice or combination of these fast, intermediate, and slow leavening agents is balanced with the timing of crust formation. This leavening balance, along with viscosity, largely determines the shape and symmetry of the final muffin.

Long story short, get a bunch of different baking powders and experiment. Look at the labels of the baking powders and keep in mind they can be very different. Baking powder is not interchangeable, and failure to pay attention to this will cause people a lot of headaches when things don't reliably work.

Thickeners: Adding pre-gelatinized starches or gums increase viscosity, which influences the symmetry or shape of the muffin. Addition of very small amounts of gums, often only 0.1-0.4%, dramatically increases water binding capacity of the batter. Guar, xanthan, karaya and locust bean gums are common ingredients in muffin formulas. Since these gums vary in functional properties, they are often added in combinations to maximize functional benefits. However, since the hydration properties of gums are often influenced by particle size, it is crucial to maintain a consistent particle size of the gums used in muffins. Significant variations in particle size will affect viscosity properties during baking and, in turn, cause changes in the symmetry of the end product.

Here's a formula for a high butter oil, creamed cake muffin. It will require tweaking.

Part A

Cake flour (must be chlorinated cake flour) 80%

Strong bread flour 20%

Sugar 120%

Clarified butter 20%

Whey protein 3%

Salt 3%

Baking powder with sodium bicarbonate and sodium aluminum phosphate 2-3%

Xanthan gum 0.2%

Part B

Whole eggs 90%

Water 60-70%

Part C

Clarified butter 80%

Blend together the ingredients in part A. Blend the ingredients in part B, then add to part A in a mixer in two stages. Then fold in the clarified butter at low speed. Bake per a normal muffin recipe.