Muffins: year four!

Today begins year four of making muffins for my girls, and I can safely say that I have learned to make a good muffin.  At 60 muffins a week, 15 weeks a semester, 6 semesters, I've made roughly 5,400 muffins over the past three years, not counting all of the cupcakes I made in preparation for my labmate's wedding last October.

That's a lot of muffins.

One day, I will do a glorious photoshoot of muffins and fulfill my secret desire to be Deb, but today is unfortunately not that day.  However, I did want to share some tips for baking muffins, whether you're doing one batch or several at a time.

--use muffin cups.  Cleanup is way easier, plain and simple.  I buy these from amazon.

--while vintage muffin tins are the best (I have a 6 muffin pan that it is my absolute favorite!) --- when you mix and match different metals, cooking times and browning changes.  Pick one pan, buy two (or four if you're me) and stick to using those. 

--an ice cream scoop is the best tool to dispense batter into baking cups in a predictable and repeatable amount. Now, you may find that using this, you don't get the giant muffins you're used to, and instead of making a dozen muffins, the recipe makes 18 smaller muffins. 

--baking times are never, ever right.  Check using a fork or toothpick at least five minutes before they're supposed to be done.

--Speaking of cooking time, I love the timers we use in lab - but since I don't have them at home unless I'm doing a big project, I use an online egg timer.