Ina Garten Just Shared Her Tips for Perfect Muffins & We're Ready To Start Baking

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Is there anything more delicious than one of those bakery muffins that are the size of a toddler’s head, with a crispy sugar-coated dome, moist, cakey interior, and more blueberries than seem possible? We don’t think so, but every time we try to replicate perfect muffins at home, they fall short. But leave it to Back to Basics author Ina Garten to do the research for us. The Barefoot Contessa star, who’s working on her next cookbook, just shared her top tips for baking great muffins. Following these could help you go from disappointing, dry muffins to the kind that will make you willing to skip your trip to the bakery.

A post shared by Ina Garten (@inagarten)

Garten’s tips for making great muffins at home are simple but effective. Two of her tips involve equipment. Garten says that home cooks should “use an ice cream scoop for uniform muffins.” An ice cream scoop helps you ensure that each muffin contains the same amount of batter. This isn’t just important visually, but it also helps ensure that each muffin in the pan cooks consistently, so you don’t wind up with a batch of muffins where some are overcooked and some are still soggy.

OXO.

Her other equipment suggestion is an oven thermometer. Over time, many ovens start to heat unevenly, so it’s important to use an oven thermometer which will let you know the actual temp of the oven, not just what it says on the dial. That way, you won’t accidentally be cooking your muffins at too low or too high a temperature without even realizing it. It can make a difference in all of your cooking, not just baking muffins.

KitchenAid.

Finally, she offers two muffin baking technique tips. If you’ve ever made muffins and had the edges of the dome stick to the pan, making your muffins impossible to get out without breaking them, then you’ll love this simple trick: don’t just grease the muffin cups on your pan; grease the top of the pan too. That way, the domes won’t stick.

Last but not least, to give your muffins that special bakery flair, “sprinkle with sugar before baking,” and you’ll get that “crunchy top.” You can use plain granulated sugar, or coarse muscovado sugar if you want even more texture.

Thanks to Ina Garten’s tips, you’ll soon be baking up perfect batches of bakery-style muffins at home.

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