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Author: Sally
Published: 02/18/2014Updated: 12/17/2020
This kitchen tested muffin batter creates extra large bakery-style muffins with big muffin tops and dense, moist centers. Create plenty of flavors using this as the base—1 muffin batter with endless options.
I love light, fluffy, cupcake-style muffins and you can find my base recipe for cakey muffins in this master muffin recipe post. But I (and maybe you!) also enjoy big muffins with a tight crumb, moist and dense center, and a tall crunchy muffin top. I call these “bakery style” and that’s what you’ll find today, my master bakery style muffin recipe.
These Bakery Style Muffins Are:
- Jumbo in size, but you can easily bake in a standard or mini muffin pan
- Sky-high with big muffin tops
- Moist and dense inside
- Topped with crunchy coarse sugar
- Adaptable to many different flavors
And I know you’ll appreciate this as much as I do: there’s no mixer required and the batter comes together in less than 10 minutes.
Behind the Recipe
Feel free to jump to the full written recipe and instructions below. If you’re interested in how and why this recipe works, let me explain. I’ve made a few notable changes from when I first published these bakery style muffins. The recipe, as originally written, produced wonderful muffins but they dried out quickly and tasted overly dense. In the past few years, I’ve worked to improve it by replacing some of the oil with melted butter, some baking powder with baking soda, and adding sour cream for moisture and lightness. (If you’d like the original recipe, see my recipe note.)
A look at the ingredients:
- Flour: We use a lot of flour to keep the batter thick and sturdy, as well as to keep the add-ins (chocolate chips, berries, nuts, etc) elevated.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda: Significant rise requires a lot of leavener. I used to use all baking powder, but I recently began adding a touch of baking soda too. In addition to leavening, a little baking soda helps brown the exterior.
- Cinnamon: I usually use cinnamon in this master muffin mix, but leave it out if it doesn’t fit well with the other flavors. For example, I use it when I make banana or apple muffins but skip it when I make berry muffins. It’s an optional ingredient.
- Vanilla Extract & Salt: Use both for flavor.
- Eggs: Eggs add moisture and bind everything together.
- Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt: Sour cream helps keep the muffins extra moist. If needed, you can use plain yogurt instead.
- Sugar: Use granulated sugar to sweeten these muffins. I used to use some brown sugar and some white granulated sugar, but brown sugar weighed the muffins down. If desired, though, you can always use 1/2 cup (100g) white granulated sugar and 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar.
- Oil & Butter: Oil produces a moist, tender muffin. Combine with melted butter for extra fat, moisture, and a little flavor.
- Milk: Milk adds plenty of moisture and lightens up the crumb. I usually use whole milk or buttermilk.
- Coarse Sprinkling Sugar: I recommend a sprinkle of coarse sugar for crunchy, sparkly muffin tops. I like Sugar in the Raw or you can use white sparkling sugar sprinkles, usually found with the sprinkles in the baking aisle.
Several Bakery Style Muffin Recipes in 1
Let’s talk flavor options. Add-ins and flavors are totally up to you! Pictured above are banana nut muffins and mixed berry muffins. I also use this bakery style muffin recipe for my raspberry chocolate chip muffins, chocolate chip muffins, and jumbo blueberry muffins.
- Banana Nut Muffins (pictured above) – Follow the master recipe below. Increase cinnamon to 1 and 1/2 teaspoons, leave out the melted butter and replace with 1 cup of mashed banana (about 2 large bananas, mashed), increase oil to 1/2 cup (120ml), and use 1 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts as the add-in. In addition to coarse sugar, I like to add a few thin slices of bananas on top of each muffin before baking. *The banana nut muffins become pretty dense after a couple days, but warming in the microwave for 10-15 seconds lightens them up again.
- Mixed Berry Muffins (pictured above) – Follow the master recipe below. Leave out the cinnamon and use 2 cups of mixed berries as the add-in such as any combination of blackberries, raspberries, chopped strawberries, and/or blueberries.
- Jumbo Raspberry Chocolate Chip Muffins (muffin batter pictured above)
- Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Jumbo Blueberry Muffins (pictured below)
- Apple Cinnamon Muffins – Follow the master recipe below. Add 1 extra teaspoon of cinnamon and use 2 cups of diced, peeled apple as the add-in.
Or use any combination of berry, fruit, nut, chocolate chips, etc. As long as the total amount of add-ins is between 1-2 cups, you’re golden! You can also add vanilla icing to the warm muffins right before serving, or replace the coarse sugar with the same crumb topping I use for these apple cinnamon muffins.
- How to add the crumb topping: Fill the muffin cups only about 3/4 full and gently press the topping down into the batter so it sticks. You’ll have enough batter for more muffins since you’re only filling the cups 3/4 full.
4 Success Tips for Jumbo Muffins
- Thick muffin batter: Thick batter helps ensure the muffins lift UP rather than spread OUT. It also creates a denser muffin instead of a light and cake-y cupcake style muffin.
- Use a jumbo muffin pan: I can’t find a link to the exact jumbo muffin pan I use (it’s about 12 years old), but I swear by USA Pan for other bakeware. A jumbo muffin pan holds 8 ounces of batter. These are big muffins!
- Fill the muffin pans to the very top: Since we’re using an initially high oven temperature trick (explained next), it’s imperative to fill the muffin cups to the very top. You can make this recipe as 6 large muffins (shown), 14-15 standard size muffins, or about 40 mini muffins.
- Bake at an initially high oven temperature: Bake the muffins for 5 minutes in a very hot oven. Then, keeping the muffins in the oven, lower the oven temperature. This initial high oven temperature quickly lifts up the muffin top. Once the temperature is lowered, the centers of the muffins bake. I do this in all my muffin recipes.
Master Bakery Style Muffin Recipe
5 Stars4 Stars3 Stars2 Stars1 Star4.8 from 44 reviews
- Author: Sally
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6 jumbo muffins or 15 standard muffins
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
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Description
This kitchen tested muffin batter creates extra large bakery style muffins with big muffin tops and dense, moist centers. Create plenty of flavors using this as the base– 1 muffin batter with endless options.
Ingredients
- 3 cups (375g)all-purpose flour ()
- 3 teaspoonsbaking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoonsalt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
- 1/3 cup(5 Tbsp; 71g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1/3 cup(80ml)vegetable oil*
- 1 cup(200g)granulated sugar
- 2largeeggs, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup(80g)sour creamoryogurt, at room temperature*
- 1 cup (240ml)milk, at room temperature*
- 1 teaspoonpure vanilla extract
- 1–2 cups add-ins (see blog post above for suggestions)
- optional: coarse sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Generously grease a 6-count jumbo muffin pan with butter or nonstick spray (nonstick spray recommended) or line with muffin liners. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon (if using) together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Whisk the melted butter, oil, sugar, and eggs together until combined. Then whisk in the sour cream, milk, and vanilla extract. Mixture will be pale yellow. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and fold together with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until completely combined. Use a whisk to rid any large lumps of flour, if needed. Avoid overmixing. The batter will be thick. Fold in the add-in(s).
- Divide batter between each muffin cup, filling all the way to the top. Sprinkle with coarse sugar (for added crunch, recommended!). Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C) and continue to bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops are lightly golden brown and centers are set. Stick a toothpick in the center of a muffin to test for doneness. If it comes out clean, the muffins are done.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan before serving.
- Cover leftover muffins and store at room temperature for 5 days or in the refrigerator for 1 week. Muffins freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or on the counter.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 6-Count Jumbo Muffin Pan | Jumbo Muffin Liners | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Coarse Sugar
- Oil: Vegetable oil, canola oil, or melted coconut oil work best in this recipe.
- Sour Cream/Yogurt: I recommend full fat sour cream or full fat or low fat plain yogurt. I don’t recommend fat-free for either.
- Milk: I like to use buttermilk or whole milk in this recipe because either add wonderful moisture and flavor. You can use any milk, dairy or nondairy, but the lower fat milk you use, the less flavorful and moist your muffins will taste.
- Can I Make These into a Loaf? Definitely! You’ll have too much batter for 1 loaf, so I recommend 2 9×5 inch or 8×4 inch loaves. I’m unsure of the best bake time, but use a toothpick to check for doneness. Bake at 350°F (177°C) the whole time.
- Standard Size Muffins or Mini Muffins:For standard size muffins baked in a 12-count muffin pan, reduce baking time to about 20 total minutes: 5 initial minutes at 425°F and 15 minutes at 350°F. Yields 14-15 standard size muffins. For about 40 mini muffins, bake for 11-13 minutes at 350°F the entire time.
- Why is everything at room temperature?Allrefrigerated items should beat room temperature so the batter mixes together easily and evenly.Read here for more information on why room temperature ingredients are important.
- Original Recipe: This recipe was updated in 2020 since its original publish date in 2014. The muffins are now moister and softer. If you’d like the original recipe, follow above but make these changes to the ingredient list: increase baking powder to 4 teaspoons, leave out the baking soda, leave out the butter, increase oil to 1/2 cup (120ml), and leave out the sour cream.
