Problem: Air pockets throughout a muffin.
Solution: The Muffin Method.
What is ‘tunneling’?
Those little air pockets that occur in your muffins and sweet breads come from a condition called tunneling. Basically what happens is, when muffin batter is overmixed, the gluten becomes too developed. Not only will you get those airy holes, but you will lose the light, soft texture you really want out of a good muffin or quick bread and wind up with a tough and chewy final product.
How do you avoid tunneling in baked goods?
By following the muffin method of mixing:
- Following your muffin or quick bread recipe, you will want to sift together your dry ingredients. Unless your recipe states otherwise, you will then want to combine all of your liquid ingredients.
- This is the key part: mix until everything is just combined. Generally, in baking you do not want lumps in your batter, but that is okay with batters like these. In fact, if you mix out all the lumps, you are probably mixing it too much.
- Use the batter as soon as you mix it up. While some batters can be saved for later, generally this needs to be used immediately to prevent sinking muffins and breads.
Give this a try next time you are whisking up a pan of pumpkin bread or a cupcake pan of banana muffins and watch how the texture improves!
Related: The 6 Top Muffin Tips
