Serious Efforts: Bacon & Raisin Muffins
This is a trial formula that I am not quite satisfied with, largely because the crumb does not quite have the texture I wanted. Try it out and let me know what you think if you're interested.
Bacon & Raisin Muffin
Dry Ingredients
200 grams cake flour
104 grams AP flour
10 grams Baking Powder
5 grams Baking Soda
one or two grams of kosher salt
Fats
bacon drippings (from 180 grams of bacon)
42 grams unsalted butter (clarified)
Other Liquids
238 grams buttermilk
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
108 grams cane syrup (Steen's, Fain's, or Brer Rabbit)
Enhancements
180 grams of bacon
78 grams of raisins
Hardware
1 twelve pocket muffin tin or 2 six pocket muffin tins
Alton Brown's Pan Lube.
Process
Cut up the raw bacon into small pieces, about the size you use on a baked potato, and fry them until they are just past the chewy stage, but not quite crunchy. Drain off the rendered fat into a convenient container and allow it to cool. Spread the bacon bits out on a pad of paper towels and let them sit for fifteen minutes or so.
Fully clarify the butter, strain it into the bacon drippings.
Thoroughly mix all the dry ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer using the whisk attachment. Note that it helps to put the flour in first and the smaller quantities of dry ingredients on top of the flour.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, and cane syrup. Mix the fats in after they cool.
Rub a thin coat of AB's pan lube into each cup of the muffin tin(s). Mind you, this coat needs to be thin.
Fire up the oven and preheat it to 375F or 190C.
Install the paddle attachment on the mixer. Pour the mixed liquids into the flour mixture with the machine set on low speed. Beat the batter at medium speed until it starts to look satiny. This will happen quickly. Do not over beat!
Continued in the Next Post...
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5 Comments:
Process continued
Stir the bacon bits and raisins into the batter by hand using a rubber spatula.
The dishers you typically find at the grocers and Wally World are usually a perfect match for your standard muffin pockets. By whatever means you have on hand, fill all twelve pockets of your muffin tin(s).
Twenty minutes in the oven, assuming your oven really is set to 375F or 190C should yield twelve perfectly shaped muffins that will fall right out of the tins when you turn them on their sides. Turn them out immediately upon removing them from the oven. I dump mine out on a doubled terry cloth towel to help prevent shattering.
Expected Results
For me, these came out with nicely caramelized bottoms and tops that were about the color of a butternut squash. The crumb texture is too fine for these to be called muffins and they are not sweet enough to qualify as cup cakes. Also, they are too tender to be called muffins. Muffins should be a bit more chewy than these things are.
Even so, the flavor came out to about what I was hoping for. I am thinking of using less cake flour and more AP. I am also considering using all AP with about twenty-percent by weight of corn starch instead of using the more expensive flour. My goal here was to end up with the equivalent of pastry flour and that may well have been what I achieved. Even so, I think the crumb texture is too fine and the blooming things are just a wee bit too dry.
If you give this a try, let me know about your results.
Thanks,
GOM.
Grumpy Old Man at 2:31AM on 06/08/09
Yes try that and then send me a few. Yummy.
chardonnay at 10:23AM on 06/08/09
Lose the cake flour.
I think the flour/batter method would be best for this case. Mix the eggs to the sugar and the flour (dry ingredients) to the fat. Then mix them together. I would not use the whisk attachment (too much air is incorporated), I would use the paddle mix on low for 2 mins, up the speed for 2 mins, then finish for no more than 2 mins.
This method allows for more liquid (your bacon grease and clarified butter) than a creaming of all the liquid together in a wet mixture.
Don't look for satin look for mostly incorporated. Does not have to be perfect here.
This should make your texture more uniform.
Also I am thinking 400 degrees for about 18-20 mins.
JerzeeTomato at 10:28AM on 06/08/09
Thanks for the advice, JerzeeTomato. I'll let you know how things work out in a day or two.
Grumpy Old Man at 7:31PM on 06/08/09
Where do you want them sent, chardonnay?
Grumpy Old Man at 7:32PM on 06/08/09