How to Make Homemade Muffins Moist: Our Top Tips

How to Make Homemade Muffins Moist: Our Top Tips

Muffins are the ideal breakfast snack. A fun baking project and a delicious meal, muffins can be made in several different flavors. Whether youre a fan of the classic blueberry muffin or a more elaborate muffin flavor like salted date and bran, there are a few tips and tricks you should keep in mind when baking them. Choosing a muffin recipe that you enjoy is arguably the most crucial part of making a delicious batch of muffins. This being so, the next most important factor is making sure that they have the right texture. While certain baked goods are meant to have a dry and flaky crust, muffins are not one of them. Instead, the perfect muffin should be soft, tender and moist. To create a muffin with the desired moist texture, youll want to carefully follow each recipe step. Additionally, you can make a few other changes to ensure that the texture of your muffins turns out as desired. To help you make sure your next batch of homemade muffins is moist, the Bobs Red Mill baking experts have put together a list of our favorite tips and tricks. Keep scrolling to learn all there is to know about your favorite breakfast treat.

Tips to Make Homemade Muffins Moist

Follow these tips and tricks to ensure that your homemade muffin recipes turn out as expected. From mixing the ingredients correctly to testing them for doneness, there are several ways that you can guarantee baking success.

Keep Wet and Dry Ingredients Separately

While mixing all ingredients in the same bowl might save you time preparing and cleaning up after your muffins, its a sure-fire way to overwork your muffin batter. Overworking batter is easy to do, which means that youll want to be extra careful the next time you mix ingredients. Additionally, make sure that the wet and dry ingredients of the batter are mixed separately. First, mix the wet ingredients together in a bowl and then mix the dry ingredients in another to prevent the muffin mix from being over-mixed. Some recipes will even recommend adding in greek yogurt or buttermilk to bump up the moisture. Then, to properly add the wet ingredients to the dry, create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and slowly begin pouring the wet ingredients in the center. As youre pouring the wet ingredients, stir the mix just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Lastly, avoid busting out your electric mixer and stick to hand mixing when you go to bake muffins.

Add All Flavorings Last

Salted Date & Bran Mug Muffin To prevent your muffins from producing too dense of a texture, add all of your flavoring last. While herbs and spices can be mixed into the other dry ingredients, add-ins like nuts, fruit and cheese should be added at the end. Doing so will help make sure the texture of the muffin is not compromised throughout the mixing process. Additionally, when mixing in the add-ins stir them in lightly to avoid overworking the dough.

Consider Paper Liners

Once its time to bake your muffins, you should consider a few things to get it right, one of which is how to line the muffin pan. Prevent your muffins from sticking to the pan by greasing your muffin tin or lining it with paper liners. If you choose to grease your pan, make sure that all areas of the muffin cup are thoroughly greasedbases and sides. If youre hoping to create extra moist muffins or arent going to eat them for a while, consider using paper liners instead. Paper liners will help keep the moisture inside of the baked goods, allowing the muffins to remain fresher for longer.

Dont Overfill the Muffin Cups

The amount in which you fill the cups on a muffin tin largely impacts how your muffins will turn out. When baking moist muffins, aim to fill the cups about full. This will produce decent-sized muffins yet also leave enough room for the tops of them to rise without creating a mess. If youre baking with a recipe that requires you to fill the muffin cups up more or less, then wed recommend doing as the recipe states. Variance on muffin ingredients and baking temperatures will directly impact how they rise and bake.

Check the Temperature of Your Oven

Excited caring millennial african dad or grown elder brother watching concentrated small black daughter or younger preteen sister taking pan with self baked tasty muffins out of oven Most recipes will state the recommended temperature to use when baking muffins. However, if youre using an alternate flour or quick bread recipe, youll likely want to adjust the temperature and baking time. Oven temperature directly affects a muffins texture and how well it rises. Muffins baked at too high of a temperature will produce an overly cooked outer crust and an undercooked filling. Muffins cooked at low temperatures for too long may dry out, creating an unpleasant texture and taste. When making homemade muffins, double-check the recipe for cooking requirements and place a thermometer in your oven to ensure that its heating properly.

Test if Muffins Are Fully Cooked

A muffin recipe will often let you know how to tell your baked goods are done baking. While some will have you look at the outside of the muffin, others may have you poke through to the center and ensure the dessert is cooked all the way through. For a no-fail way to check muffins for doneness, stick a toothpick into the center of the muffin. If its done, your toothpick will come out clean with just a few moist crumbs. After the muffins are fully cooked, quickly transfer them to a wire rack or cooling tray. Leaving muffins in a pan for too long may result in soggy muffins.

Top Your Muffins with Flavor

Looking for a way to add more flavor to your moist muffin recipe without drying out your cake? Once your muffin tray has been filled to the correct amount, you can decorate the tops of the batter with more nuts, fruits, granola and more. Adding these ingredients to the tops of your muffin wont affect their texture as they rise, and the flavors will bake right in.

Fill the Empty Cups of Your Muffin Tin

Homemade strawberry muffins in paper cupcake cases If when filling up your muffin tin, you find that there is not enough batter to do so, dont worry. Muffins will still cook well, even if some of the cups are left empty. However, if you really want to make sure your muffins turn out correctly, half fill the empty muffin cups with water. Doing so will make sure that the muffins bake evenly and that the pan is protected from buckling. It will also create a light layer of steam in the oven, ensuring that your muffins dont dry out as they rise.

Allow Your Muffins to Cool

Once your muffins are thoroughly baked, Its time to remove them from the oven. After removing the muffins, allow them to sit and cool in the muffin pan for a few minutes before placing them on a wire cooling rack. This step is even more critical if youve oiled the pan and your muffins are not in a paper liner. Allowing them to cool slightly in the pan before removing them will help keep them from falling apart. This being said, you only want to leave them in the pan for a short amount of timeabout five minutes. Any longer, and you run the risk of your muffins going soggy as they cool off.

Refrain from Making Muffin Batter in Advance

Wondering if you can make muffin batter in advance? Whether youd like to double up on your next batch of muffins or simply complete the batter ahead of time to bake later, we dont recommend making muffin batter in advance. When cooking with baking soda and baking powder, the ingredients become activated as soon as they contact a liquid. Therefore, making batter ahead of time will cause the reaction of those ingredients to fizzle out, and your muffins wont rise as intended. While wed stay away from making the batter ahead of time, muffins can still be made in advance and will usually keep for a few days after you bake them. Then, to enjoy your muffins warm, simply reheat them. A few minutes at a low temperature in a toaster oven should get the job done! If you began reading this article wondering how to make muffins moist, we hope youve found the answer. Making homemade muffins that flaunt a moist and tender texture isnt tricky. With the tips and tricks listed above, making delicious muffins will quickly become second nature. Make a sweet muffin recipe like these blueberry muffins, or choose from one of the delightful savory muffin recipes in this article. No matter how and when you enjoy this treat, its sure to satisfy your cravings. From everyone at Bobs Red Mill, we wish you the best on your baking journey!
Bob's Red Mill
August 09 2021

Comments

Clara Hewis

During WWll my mother had a "Basic Muffin Recipe" that she made often, sometimes adding fruits like blueberries or apples. I can't find her recipe, though I have several (from that time) that may have allowed for ingredients that may be in short supply, or rationed. Do you have a Basic Muffin Recipe that you can share?

Reply
Nomapa

Your reply was clear, precise and straight to the point.I am going to mark the way you have answered my question and practise it.Thank you.Good night.

Reply
Dorotha

Thank you for your wise information and sharing it with us.
Is it best to bake at 350 degrees or 300 degrees for muffins and the time amount it takes. Would it be different for cranberries vs blueberries as the amount of time to bake? Thank you.

Reply
Elisabeth AllieDorotha

Hi Dorotha! It really depends on the recipe--you should follow their temperature recommendations. With blueberries and cranberries, there should be a big difference between fresh blueberries and cranberries, but if you were, say, substituting dried cranberries in a recipe where you usually use frozen blueberries, they may bake 2-3 minutes faster.

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Linda Palagi

Thank you for creating a non wheat all purpose!! I made carrot muffins this morning. Comments for the recipe said a bit dry (regular flour recipe) so I added a tablespoon more liquid and was sure to remove at the least amount of cooking time recommended. They were crumbly and dry. I just finished the article on your site for moist muffins, but still searching for additional advice .
Additionally, do you have recipes specifically for your wheat free flour?

Reply
Elisabeth AllieLinda Palagi

Hi there--we have recipes for all of our products at https://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes. Happy exploring!

Reply
Gloria End

How do you keep muffins and cup cakes from sticking to paper liners?

Reply
Elisabeth AllieGloria End

You can use pan spray or brush them with oil!

Reply
EllaElisabeth Allie

So spray the inside of the liner?

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DavoidElla

Thanks for a concise set of suggestions to make muffins moister. I'm not a baker, per se, and relied only on the Washington Post recipe for 2024 Olympic Chocolate Muffins (8/7/24). Used the Tulip parchment liners WAPO recommended. Muffins came out a bit drier than I'd hoped/expected, but texture was consistent and tops appropriately crusty. I used quality chocolate ingredients. I suspect I over mixed the batter. Will try your trick of placing the dry ingredients in a bowl, making a well, and then mixing in (more like folding in the wet ingredients in gradually. As the recipe calls for adding additional chocolate chunks, I'll stop the folding mixing a bit early as more mixing will be involved when the chunks are folded in. May also put a bowl of water in the oven--sort of like baking bread--to speed the development of the outside crust of the muffin top, hoping to preserve more moisture. Does that make sense to you?

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George

You do not put a temperature in what temperature is recommended for the muffins you seem to have missed this point please let me know no thank you

Reply
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