Muffins and “Tulips” to Celebrate Spring

In just a bit I am going to give away all my secrets for how to make muffins that are so great your friends and family will call you a genius. But first, I want to show you what happened one Saturday morning as I was in the middle of making a fabulous—if I do say so myself—brunch.

I was all ready to fill the muffin cups with batter when I remembered that I’d used every last one of my cupcake paper liners. I was in no mood to go to the store. Muffin batter is not kind to those who do not move it quickly to the oven once the wet ingredients have been stirred in.

I wanted to kick myself because I’d planned to splurge and order these very nice Tulip Muffin Papers online …

… but at the last minute felt myself choking at the price: $26.95 plus $9.95. shipping for 250 elegant muffin/cupcake papers—about $.15 each.

How dumb would that be to spend about the cost of the muffin just to bake it in a very cool-looking throw-away paper? Don’t answer. And don’t hate me when I tell you how much I wished that I’d ordered them anyway because at that moment I really needed them.

Back to my dilemma

I really do not like to bake muffins in a muffin pan without paper liners. The batter tends to flow onto the pan as the muffins rise, making them ugly and difficult to remove. And then once removed to cool, their poor little bodies are all exposed, which makes them get all dried out and crusty well before their time.

Right about then, I got to thinking: What if …

 

 

My photography skills leave much to be desired, but trust me on this: It worked so well, no more cupcake paper liners for muffins in my little bakery. My DIY tulip papers are way superior because they keep all of the muffin in the cup; not even the muffin top spills out. And besides, they look like they came from a quaint little French bakery.

Here’s how I did it:

I used parchment paper cut into 6-inch squares for these regular-size muffins. I folded each one twice, diagonally from corner to corner to show me the center. Then I centered and formed them over a small can of tomato paste (a small juice glass would work as well) sliding my hand down the side of the can to “pleat” the paper to conform to the size of the can. Because parchment paper is sturdy, it holds this shape very well.

Filling these muffin “tulip” papers without making a mess all over the sides of the paper is a little tricky, just go slow and easy. What works really well for me is to pour the batter into a disposable cake decorating bag or a gallon-size zip lock bag to fill the muffin cups. I tried the zip bag idea a few days after these pics were taken, cutting off one of the bottom corners just large enough to allow my blueberry muffin mix to pass through easily. I filled the cups as if I were decorating a cake. Fabulous results.

Baked in these tulip papers, muffins are a cinch to lift out of the muffin pan to cool, because as I said, everything in contained. Just pick them up by two “ears.”

To open right at the moment of consumption, pull on two opposite “ears” and voila! There it is, a beautiful, moist, luscious piece of heaven.

For jumbo-size muffins, 7-inch squares of parchment work perfectly when formed over a regular size can, like a can of soup.

I also have a mini-muffin pan. Yes, I made tiny tulip papers for it: 3 1/2-inch squares of parchment formed over a an upside-down prescription bottle. So adorable.

The parchment paper cost about $.10 per sheet. I got 6 regular-size tulip muffin papers out of one sheet for a cost of about 1 1/2 cents each.

And now for muffins …

I love to bake, however baking has not always liked me. We’ve had our moments. It wasn’t until I surrendered to following recipes exactly that our relationship made the turn. I had to come to the point that I was willing to measure the ingredients, follow directions and believe that little things like “folding in” does not mean “beating it to death,” “one-cup of flour” doesn’t mean, “that looks about right,” and “butter softened,” does not mean “boiling like a witch’s cauldron.”

One day that I will not soon forget, I was reminded about how far I’ve come as a home baker when DPL staffer, Max, could be heard throughout the office, “These blueberry muffins are insane!” Sure, he called them blueberry muffins, but I call them Einstein Muffins. That’s because every time I make them, I feel like a genius. And you can feel like a genius, too—provided you follow these recipes exactly.

 

And, what muffin post would be complete without this fabulous Banana Muffin recipe? Enjoy!

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