Make 3 Easy Muffins!

1. Welcome to the class: Hello. My name is Rita. Welcome to this class. I am a Portuguese pastry chef, YouTuber, and cookbook author. In this class, I am going to teach you how to make three easy muffin recipes. Muffins are great to make at home because they are easy and they are fast, and the ones that I will teach you here are exactly that. We are going to learn how to make a chocolate chunk orange muffin, an almond and zucchini muffin, and a vanilla and chocolate zebra muffin. Let me know which one is your favorite. Besides the recipes, I will teach you a few tips and tricks so your muffins turn out like the ones you buy or even better. So let's start baking some muffins. 2. Basic muffin utensils: As I told you, the recipes that I'm going to share with you are very easy, and you can actually do them by hand using just a ball and a satua or a whisk. Obviously, you can use also a stand mixer or hand mixer it's up to you, but they are very doable by hand. And besides those basic utensils, you will also need, obviously muffin tins. You can use this ones, or you can use those that come individually. And you will need muffin liners, and you can buy those, and you can just put them inside of your muffin tins or you can make your own. And I'm going to teach you how start by making squares out of parchment paper, and then you will need a glass that fits the cavity of your muffin tins, and you will invert it and use this glass to shape each square into a muffin liner. All you have to do is to press the square of parchment paper into the glass and shape it tightly so it keeps the shape. And there you go, homemade muffin liners ready to use. And to fill your muffin tins, the best thing that you can have is an ice cream scoop. You will your batter and unscoop it on your muffin tin. And this way, not only it will be mess free, but also you can use always the same amount of batter and it's easier to make your muffins all of the same size. Obviously, if you don't have an ice cream scoop, you can either use a tablespoon and fill your muffin tins or other way to do it is to use a piping bag and pipe your batter directly into the muffin tins. Everything works, just choose what it's easier for you and not onto the recipes. 3. Chocolate chunk orange muffins: Let's start by making the chocolate chunk and orange muffins that are so fluffy and full of orange flavor. These muffins, we will need eggs, sugar, orange, flour, baking powder, butter, and chocolate. Let's start by zesting the orange into a bowl. Add the sugar, mix very well with your hands. This will make the sugar very fragrant. It will release the natural oils of the orange zest. This way, the orange flavor will be more present in the muffins. To this mixture, let's add the eggs. And with the whisk, let's whisk for about one or 2 minutes until everything is very well combined. Also do this with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer. Next step is to add the flour and the baking powder, and again, with the whisk, whisk everything together, mix softly this time. After adding the flour, we don't want to over mix the butter. At this point, we will melt the butter. I use the microwave, and we don't want the butter to be very hot, so be careful with that and start adding the butter slowly little by little to the batter and always whisking each time you add a little bit of butter because it's easier to incorporate the butter this way. When you're done incorporating all the butter, add the orange juice, mix very well. And if you want to make plain orange muffins, you can actually use the batter as it. But we are doing orange and chocolate muffins. So let's add some chocolate. I'm chopping a bar of chocolate to make chocolate chunks, but you can add the same amount of chocolate chips. All we have to do now is mix the chocolate into the batter, so it is evenly distributed and the batter is ready. Let's now divide it 9-12 muffin tins, depending if you want your muffins smaller or larger. Before baking, I like to sprinkle the top of each muffin with a little bit of sugar, and they will be baked at 350 Fahrenheit, 180 Celsius for about 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. You can enjoy them warm or cold. They will keep for about three to four days stored in an airtight container. 4. Almond and zucchini muffins: Next, we will make the almond and zucchini muffins so moist and so aromatic. The ingredients for these muffins are zucchini, flour, almond flour, baking powder, eggs, vegetable oil, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, lemon zest, and some sliced almonds to put on top of the muffins. First step is to grate the zucchini. Obviously, you have to wash it and dry it. And since the zucchini has a lot of moisture, we are going to put it in a clean and dry cloth, and we are going to squeeze it so we can remove the excess of moisture. The water that comes out, you can discard, and the zucchini will be a little bit drier and we will reserve it for now. Bowl, put the eggs with the brown sugar, and with the whisk, whisk it for about two to 3 minutes, or you can use a hand mixer or do it in a stand mixer. We need this mixture to be a little bit paler and a little bit foamier. At this point, add the lemon zest, the oil, and the grated and dried zucchini. Mix everything very well, and let's add the dry ingredients. The flour, the almond flour. The cinnamon, baking, powder, and salt. And to finish the batter, all we have to do is to integrate the flour. Once you don't see any specks of flour, your batter is ready. You can now fill your lined muffin tins, and with this amount, you can make about ten or 12 muffins, depending on the size. To finish the muffins, sprinkle the top of each one. A few sliced almonds, this will add a really nice crunch and bake in a 350 Fahrenheit or one 80 Celsius oven for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. They are golden brown and your house smells amazing. 5. Vanilla and chocolate zebra muffins: Lastly, we will make vanilla and chocolate vibra muffins. Those are a lot of fun. They are delicious, but they are also very pretty. We will need butter that needs to be soft, two large eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder, and then vanilla and cocoa powder. Start by creaming the softened butter with the sugar for about one to 2 minutes until the mixture is a little bit more pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, mixing well between each egg. I am using here a hand mixer, but you can do this in a stand mixer or by hand using a whisk. At this point, the mixture is a little bit more creamy and fluffier and a little bit more pale, and that's exactly what you want. At this point, mix the baking powder with the flour. Add this to the mixture that has the sugar, the eggs, and the butter and slowly incorporate the flour. We don't want to over mix a batter once we add the flour, and the batter is very thick. It has a very nice consistency. At this point, let's divide it equally, and let's put our flavors in. Half the butter will be vanilla flavor. I'll add the vanilla paste, and the other half will be chocolate flavor. I'm adding here the cocoa powder that I am sifting because the cocoa powder sometimes has some little lumps. The vanilla in half the butter to evenly distribute and do the exact same with the cocoa powder in the other half of the batter. Now that we have our vanilla and chocolate batters ready, let's transfer them into piping bags. This is without a doubt, the easiest way to do the zebra effect on the muffins. Cut the tips of each piping bag and let's start making the muffins. This is actually a lot of fun. Start by placing a little bit of dolop of the vanilla batter into the cake tins and then come with the piping bag with the chocolate batter and put more or less the same in the center on top of the vanilla batter. And all you have to do is to repeat this until you're happy with the size of your muffins. You can tap the tin in the table, so the batter is flatter. It's easier to keep on piping, and you can obviously do them smaller. I decided to do jumbo muffins, and they baked for about 20 minutes in 350 Fahrenheit, 180 Celsius oven. Now, look at this cool zebra effect. 6. Storage and tips: These recipes don't make a lot of muffins, and I'm pretty sure that they will go fast. But if you want, you can also double the recipe and make more muffins. And if you have muffins leftover, make sure you store them in an airtight container or zip lock bag. This way, they will last up to three to four days. And also, you can freeze them. If you want to freeze them, let them cook completely, and then you can freeze them in a tray. And once they are fully frozen, you can then put them in a bag, and this way they won't take as much space in your freezer. And when you want to eat them, just take them out of the freezer and let it tow at room temperature. It will take about two to 3 hours and they will be as good as in the day that you bake them. So that's a good tip. My last tip is that you can use these recipes and change a few things to create new ones. For instance, in the chocolate chunk and orange muffins, you can make the recipe without the chocolate and you will still have a wonderful orange muffin. Instead of the chocolate, you can add a few chopped walnuts, for instance. You can add cinnamon for a more flavorful muffin. Also in the almond and zucchini muffin, you can substitute the almond for any other nut like hazel nut, for instance. So don't be afraid to play with the recipes. 7. Goodbye and class project: I hope you have enjoyed this class and I hope you enjoy baking these muffins. Obviously, the class project is to bake at least one of these muffins. Don't forget to upload the picture so I can see your muffins. And I will see you in my next class. You can check my other classes here, and you can find me at La Dolcita on YouTube and Instagram. Bye.