It took me 5 years to realize I was overmixing my muffins

I used to think the key to fluffy muffins was beating the batter until it was totally smooth, like cake batter. Then last month I made my grandma's blueberry muffin recipe and she watched me mix. She said 'honey, you're killing the gluten' and I laughed it off at first. But she made me stop after 12 stirs and the difference was wild - they came out tall and tender instead of dense and dome-topped. Now I feel stupid for making over 60 batches of sad, tough muffins over the years. Has anyone else had an aha moment where a simple change like that fixed everything?

2 comments

2 Comments

miles_grant3515d ago

Wait, are you telling me I've been making sad, tough muffins my whole life for no reason? Ugh, thanks for sharing this, feels like you just saved me from another 60 bad batches.

stellafisher15d ago

Oh man, I've been there too lol. Like, how many bags of flour did we waste on those hockey pucks before figuring this out? But wait, are you mixing your wet and dry ingredients separately before combining them? I read somewhere that overmixing is the real killer, but I'm still not 100% sure if gently folding is enough or if I need to be even more careful.