Don't you just hate it when you make muffins or cupcakes and when you get one to eat and start to pull off the paper liner, it is stuck to the muffin or cupcake? Me, too.
Well, now I know what to do.
I made some gluten-free banana bread mini-muffins this weekend to take to church for the Cafe Treats. I have been having problems cleaning my mini-muffin pan lately which is a big pain in the wazoo. So when I started to make the muffins from the King Arthur box mix, it said to grease the muffin pan or use paper liners. Since I recently bought some paper liners for mini-muffins to make clean-up easier, I decided to do that.
I know from experience to spray the paper liners with nonstick cooking spray before filling the cups and I did that expecting that to do the trick. WELL, it didn't. After the mini-muffins had cooled completely, I thought I would see how they tasted.
You can imagine my disgust when I picked at the side of the paper liner and it was stuck to the muffin. I was so upset because the mix had made 52 mini-muffins that I knew would last me at least two Sundays for the Cafe Treats I just sat down on my glider couch and was silent.
After a bit, I decided to google to see if I could find a solution for my problem and of course links came up. I have to say I didn't read them all. The first one I read said to spray your liners first, but I had done that and that didn't keep them from sticking. Then I read one answer that said to freeze them for 5 to 10 minutes and then twist them out of the liner.
I didn't go any farther, but decided I would give that a try.
Well, that worked for about 95 percent of them. The ones that didn't work well, may have been the four I filled before I realized I had forgotten to spray the liners. This was the second pan I was making. Since I was making a banana bread muffin and the batter was a little bit different consistency than a cake mix make be, I noticed the four that didn't do great, had spaces in them so those spaces weren't even touching the liners. Bottom line -- I felt the experience was successful and will remember that again if I have the problem.
This is what I actually did.
We recently got a new refrigerator freezer that is about 4 cubic feet smaller. We lost space in the freezer. The compartment is narrower. I have a cookie sheet that fit perfectly in my old freezer, but is too wide for my new one. So I had to find something else that I could use to quick-freeze my baked goods. Solution? I have a tempered glass cutting board that works great.
After the muffins had cooled completely, I spaced some on the glass board so they weren't touching, closed the freezer, and set the timer for 10 minutes.
When I timer went off, I removed two muffins at a time instead of all of them. It was warm enough in my kitchen that I was afraid the muffins would thaw since they hadn't been in the freezer that long. It took me a minute or two to do all of them and they did get easier to peel by the end. Saying that, I think I would do it again for 10 minutes to start.
I carefully worked with each one, by holding the muffin with one (left) hand and then using my fingernails on my other hand to get the paper started to separate from the muffin. I didn't rush this procedure because I wanted to not disturb the muffin as much as possible. As I worked around each muffin, I peeled back the paper as it appeared to separate best for that muffin.
And you know what? No one noticed so I must I have done a good job. What I did hear was lots of yummies when they bit into them.
Here are some pictures I took during the process.
This last picture shows three of the four that I didn't consider a success. You can see the spaces I was talking about. Some of the holes were made because some of the muffin still stuck to the paper liner.
Here is a picture of my tempered glass board that I am using to fast freeze some of the muffins for next Sunday.
Frozen, now I can place them in a freezer bag and they won't mess up until next Sunday. That means I won't have to make something gluten-free next Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment