The Muffin (wo)Man

It’s easy to make friends when you’re a pastry chef. Maybe you remember the Friends episode where Monica becomes addicted to the baker’s high where she just can’t stop making sweets to keep friends and neighbors coming around. I think I’ve made a couple extra friends this week.

Day two in Chef Belinda Brooks’ class included a very short lecture, then we were down to the kitchen for muffin day. We made muffins two ways (I never knew there were two ways to make muffins!): 1) the muffin method (what a clever name), and 2) the creaming method.

Here’s a photo of my mise en place for muffin day:

The muffin method is very similar to making biscuits. Combine dry ingredients, combine wet ingredients. Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients until they just come together and drop into muffin tins. Voila! Super easy. I learned that I by far prefer the muffin method. These muffins turned out with a beautiful light crumb.

The creaming method is similar to the start of a cookie dough. Cream together butter and sugar, add eggs, and then alternate incorporating the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. This method is fussier and I felt that the muffins weren’t quite as good. Which is why I don’t have any photos of them! They were baked in muffin tins. The crumb was great texture, but the flavor wasn’t impeccable.

Blueberry Muffins – Creaming Method
125g butter (not too cold)
162.5g sugar
3g salt
17.5g milk solids
3oz egg (about 1.5 eggs)
250g cake flour
12.5g baking powder
6.25g vanilla
187.5g water
blueberries
pearl sugar

1 Scale ingredients.
2 Combine butter and sugar until light. Add in salt and milk powder. Cream until light.
3 Add eggs in 2-3 stages, fully incorporating after each stage.
4 Combine flour and baking powder in one container; vanilla and water in another.
5 Alternate dry ingredients then wet until just combined.
6 Coat frozen blueberries with remaining flour and mix in with a spoon.
7 Drop into paper-lined muffin cups (about 1/2 full).
8 Bake until golden brown.

Just like Monica from Friends, I kept (and made) some friends this week by sharing the blueberry muffin loaf. Here’s to bribery via sweets!