Bake it Better

I was telling my friend that I should really cut down my baking sessions to only once a week, as most bakes are very fattening. Yet, I could not resist the itch to bake something by mid-week. I made Orange muffins this morning at 6.30am right after my elder boy has gone off to school. I used the same recipe as the Oreo Muffins which I made earlier, and substitute the milk with orange juice and added in grated zest of an orange.

This time, I used a new set of paper liners. These muffin (or cupcake) cups are actually bigger than I thought. They have greater depth than the usual ones that I used. The batter could only fill up to 5 cups instead of the usual 6, and the cups were barely half-filled. As such, the muffins looked rather small in the paper cups. This recipe adopts the biscuit method (or the creaming method), that is, the butter is creamed with sugar before the other ingredients are added. As usual, my muffins came out with cracked tops. Don't you think it looked more like those chinese steamed cakes (huat kueh) instead of a muffin??

According to this website, Joy of Baking, "the 'perfect' American Muffin is symmetrical with a domed top. The surface of the muffin should be bumpy and the volume of the batter should have almost doubled during baking. The muffin should feel light for its size and when cut in half its interior should be moist and tender with no tunnels." Well, I consoled myself that my muffins did fit these description...they were light, moist and tender with no tunnels. Nevertheless, I am still not very satisfied with this and will continue to try out new recipes in order to achieve "my"perfect muffins!