Read The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook Online
Authors: The Editors at America's Test Kitchen
Tags: #Cooking
The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (262 page)
MAKES 8
Resist the urge to eat the scones hot out of the oven, as letting them cool for at least 10 minutes firms them up and improves their texture.
2 | cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour |
3 | tablespoons sugar |
1 | tablespoon baking powder |
¹⁄ | teaspoon salt |
5 | tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ¹⁄ |
¹⁄ | cup dried currants (optional) |
1 | cup heavy cream |
1.
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2.
Pulse flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in food processor to combine, about 3 pulses. Scatter butter evenly over top and continue to pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with some slightly larger pieces of butter, about 12 more pulses. Transfer mixture to large bowl and stir in currants, if using. Stir in cream until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.
3.
Turn dough and any floury bits out onto floured counter and knead until rough, slightly sticky ball forms, 5 to 10 seconds. Pat dough into 9-inch round and cut into 8 wedges.
4.
Place wedges on prepared baking sheet. Bake until tops of scones are lightly golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Substitute ¹⁄
2
cup coarsely chopped crystallized ginger for currants.
Add 1 teaspoon grated fresh orange zest with butter and substitute ³⁄
4
cup dried cranberries for currants.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
We wanted jumbo bakery-size muffins with a rich full flavor and a thick, crisp crust protecting its fragile, tender crumb. We began by testing mixing techniques and chose creaming, which produced the most tender crumb. Increasing the butter and sugar made for a richly flavored muffin, perfect served on its own with jam or as a base for add-ins like dried fruit, citrus zest, nuts, and even chocolate chips. Liquids were up next, and we found that low-fat yogurt delivered the finest crumb and the most rounded and crusty top. And to ensure these muffins got that big rounded top we were after, we increased the amount of batter by one-third.
MAKES 12 MUFFINS
If you are short on time, you can melt the butter, mix it with the eggs, and stir it into the dry ingredients. When thoroughly mixed, beat in the yogurt and proceed with the recipe. To cinnamon-coat muffin tops, dip warm muffins in melted butter, then in mixture of ¹⁄
2
cup granulated sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Serve these muffins warm with jam.
3 | cups (15 ounces) all-purpose flour |
1 | tablespoon baking powder |
¹⁄ | teaspoon baking soda |
¹⁄ | teaspoon salt |
10 | tablespoons unsalted butter, softened |
1³⁄ | cups (12¹⁄ |
2 | large eggs |
1¹⁄ | cups plain low-fat yogurt |
1.
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 12-cup muffin tin with vegetable oil spray. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl and set aside.
2.
Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients in 2 additions, alternating with 3 additions of yogurt, scraping down bowl as needed. Give batter final stir by hand.
3.
Using ice cream scoop or large spoon, divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out with few crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating muffing tin halfway through baking. Invert muffins onto wire rack, stand muffins upright, and let cool 5 minutes. Serve.
Dissolve 3 tablespoons instant espresso powder in yogurt before adding to batter and fold 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips into finished batter.
Cream 1 ounce almond paste with butter and sugar and fold 1¹⁄
2
cups dried apricots, chopped fine, into finished batter. Sprinkle batter with ¹⁄
2
cup sliced almonds before baking.
We like raspberry jam here but any jam will work.
Cream 1 ounce almond paste with butter and sugar. In step 3, spoon half-portion batter into each muffin cup, then with small spoon make well in center of each portion of batter. Spoon about 1 teaspoon raspberry jam into each well. Fill cups with remaining batter and proceed as directed.
Add 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest to butter-sugar mixture and fold 7¹⁄
2
ounces blueberries into finished batter.
Substitute 1 cup packed light brown sugar for granulated sugar. Add ¹⁄
2
teaspoon ground nutmeg to flour mixture in step 1, and fold 3 small bananas, chopped fine (about 1¹⁄
2
cups), and ³⁄
4
cup chopped walnuts into finished batter.
Add 3 tablespoons poppy seeds to flour mixture and 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest to butter-sugar mixture. While muffins are baking, heat ¹⁄
4
cup sugar and ¹⁄
4
cup lemon juice in small saucepan until sugar dissolves and mixture forms light syrup, 3 to 4 minutes. Brush warm syrup over warm muffins.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
Blueberry muffins, for all of their simple, warm appeal, have a host of problems, as they emerge from the oven too sweet, too rough, too dense, or just plain bland, with little to no real blueberry flavor. We wanted smaller, more delicate muffins, with a balanced fresh blueberry flavor. For this more delicate texture, we decided to forget creaming the butter and sugar and instead whisked the sugar with melted butter. Then we added sour cream and gently folded in the dry ingredients. Using frozen wild blueberries meant we could enjoy these muffins year-round, and coating the muffin tops with a frosty sugar glaze ensured these muffins would disappear as quickly as we could make them.
MAKES 12 MUFFINS
This recipe does not require a stand mixer, but when making the batter, be sure to whisk vigorously in step 2, then fold carefully in step 3. There should be no large pockets of flour in the finished batter, but small occasional spots may remain. Do not overmix the batter. These muffins are great unadorned, but for an extra flourish, dip warm muffins in melted butter, then in mixture of ¹⁄
2
cup granulated sugar and two teaspoons cinnamon.
2 | cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour |
1 | tablespoon baking powder |
¹⁄ | teaspoon salt |
1 | large egg |
1 | cup (7 ounces) sugar |
4 | tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled |
1¹⁄ | cups sour cream |
6 | ounces (1¹⁄ |
1.
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 12-cup muffin tin with vegetable oil spray.
2.
Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl until combined. Whisk egg in second medium bowl until well-combined and light-colored, about 20 seconds. Add sugar and whisk vigorously until thick and homogeneous, about 30 seconds. Add melted butter in 2 or 3 steps, whisking to combine after each addition. Add sour cream in 2 steps, whisking until just combined.
3.
Add blueberries to dry ingredients and gently toss to combine. Add sour cream mixture and carefully fold with rubber spatula until batter comes together and berries are evenly distributed, 25 to 30 seconds (small spots of flour may remain and batter will be thick). Do not overmix.
4.
Using ice cream scoop or large spoon, divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out with few crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating muffing tin halfway through baking. Invert muffins onto wire rack, stand muffins upright, and let cool for 5 minutes. Serve.
While muffins are baking, mix 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest or grated fresh ginger and ¹⁄
2
cup sugar in small bowl and set aside. Bring ¹⁄
4
cup lemon juice and ¹⁄
4
cup sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat and simmer until mixture is thick and syrupy and reduced to about 4 tablespoons. After muffins have cooled for 5 minutes, brush tops with glaze, then, working one at a time, dip tops in lemon-sugar or ginger-sugar. Set muffins upright on wire rack and serve.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
Blueberry muffins should be packed with blueberry flavor and boast a moist crumb. But too often, the blueberry flavor is fleeting, thanks to the fact that the berries in the produce aisle have suffered from long-distance shipping. We wanted blueberry muffins that put the berry flavor at the forefront and would taste great with blueberries of any origin, even the watery supermarket kind. To achieve this goal, we tried combining blueberry jam with fresh supermarket blueberries. The muffins baked up with a pretty blue filling, but tasters thought the jam made them too sweet. To solve this, we made our own fresh, low-sugar berry jam by simmering fresh blueberries on the stovetop with a bit of sugar. Adding our cooled homemade jam to the batter along with fresh, uncooked berries gave us the best of both worlds: intense blueberry flavor and the liquid burst that only fresh berries could provide. As for the muffin base, we found that the quick-bread method—whisking together eggs and sugar before adding milk and melted butter, and then gently folding in the dry ingredients—produced a hearty, substantial crumb that could support a generous amount of fruit. We found that an equal amount of butter and oil gave us just the right combination of buttery flavor and moist, tender texture. To make the muffins even richer, we swapped the whole milk for buttermilk. Finally, for a nice crunch, we sprinkled lemon-scented sugar on top of the batter just before baking.