QUICK BREAD BASICS

MUFFINS, BISCUITS, SCONES, CORNBREAD, banana bread, and Irish soda bread have a number of elements in common. All of these baked goods can be quickly prepared (the batter or dough can usually be assembled in the time it takes to preheat the oven) and quickly baked. This sets them far apart from yeast breads, which must be allowed to rise for hours before baking. Chemical leaveners, such as baking powder and baking soda, are speedy and reliable.

There are a number of ingredients, pieces of equipment, and techniques you will use repeatedly when making recipes in this book.

INGREDIENTS

BUTTER

For flavor, butter is the best fat to use in muffins, biscuits, and quick breads. We tested leading brands and found that freshness is the factor that most affects flavor. The best way to store butter is sealed in an airtight plastic bag in the freezer, pulling out sticks as you need them. Butter will keep in the freezer for several months but for no more than two or three weeks in the refrigerator.

We use unsalted butter in our test kitchen. We like its sweet, delicate flavor and prefer to add our own salt to recipes. We find that the quality of salted butter is often inferior and that each manufacturer adds a different amount of salt, which makes recipe writing difficult.

DAIRY

Milk, buttermilk, yogurt, or cream is essential to all of the recipes in this book. They help bring doughs together and add flavor and richness.

Buttermilk and yogurt are acidic (both have been treated with bacteria) and will give baked goods a subtle tang. Recipes with these dairy items usually contain baking soda. Use either low-fat or whole-milk plain yogurt, but avoid nonfat yogurt, which can make baked goods a bit dry and bland. Buttermilk is very low in fat—use either regular or skim versions. When measuring thick buttermilk or cream, make sure to use a spatula to scrape all of the liquid out of the measuring cup and into the batter.

FLOUR

Most of the recipes in this book call for all-purpose flour. All-purpose flour is typically made from a combination of hard red winter wheat and soft red winter wheat. Perhaps the primary difference between these types of wheat—and, consequently, in the flours made from them—is the variation in protein content. Hard winter wheat is about 10 to 13 percent protein, and soft wheat about 8 to 10 percent. Mixtures of the two wheats are somewhere in between.

High-protein flours are generally recommended for yeasted products and other baked goods that require a lot of structural support. The reason is that the higher the protein level in a flour, the greater the potential for the formation of gluten. The sheets that gluten forms in dough are elastic enough to move with the gas released by yeast (which causes the bread to rise) but also sturdy enough to prevent that gas from escaping, so the dough doesn't deflate. Lower-protein flours, on the other hand, are recommended for chemically leavened baked goods such as cakes and pastries. This is because baking powder and baking soda are quick leaveners. They lack the endurance of yeast, which can force the naturally resistant gluten sheets to expand. Gluten can overpower quick leaveners, causing the final baked product to fall flat. For this reason, bread flour (which is made from high-protein wheat) does not work in a muffin or biscuit recipe.

A second important difference in flours is whether they are bleached or not. Technically, all all-purpose flours are bleached. Carotenoid pigments in wheat lend a faint yellowish tint to freshly milled flour. But in a matter of about 12 weeks, these pigments oxidize, undergoing the same chemical process that turns a sliced apple brown. In this case, yellowish flour changes to a whiter hue (though not stark white). Early in this century, as the natural bleaching process came to be understood, scientists identified methods to chemically expedite and intensify it. Typically, all-purpose flours are bleached with either benzoyl peroxide or chlorine gas. The latter not only bleaches the flour but also alters the flour proteins, making them less inclined to form strong gluten. Today many consumers prefer chemically bleached flour over unbleached because they associate the whiter color with higher quality.

In extensive kitchen tests, we found that chemically bleached flour can give simple baked goods an "off" flavor, most often described as metallic. This characteristic is easiest to spot in a simple biscuit and less noticeable in a muffin with lots of sugar and other flavorful ingredients. We prefer unbleached, all-purpose flour for most uses.

In some cases, when we want an especially tender texture, we use cake flour along with the all-purpose. While all-purpose flour is made from hard wheat (at least in part) and contains between 10 and 12 percent protein, cake flour is made from soft wheat and typically has just 8 to 10 percent protein. Less protein means less gluten formation and a more tender crumb.

Most supermarkets sell two kinds of cake flour: plain and self-rising. Self-rising cake flour contains salt and baking powder and is meant to be a convenience product. We would rather choose the amount and type of leavener that goes into our baking.

No matter the type or brand, we measure all flour by the dip-and-sweep method. Dip a metal or plastic dry measure into a bag of flour so that the cup is overflowing with flour. Then use a knife or icing spatula to level off the flour, sweeping the excess back into the bag. Short of weighing flour (which is what professional bakers do), this measuring method is your best guarantee of using the right amount of flour. Spooning the flour into the measuring cup aerates it, and you might end up with as much as 25 percent less flour by weight.

LEAVENERS

Muffins, biscuits, and quick breads, as well as cookies, cakes, pancakes, and waffles, get their rise from chemical leaveners—baking soda and baking powder—rather than yeast. Chemical leavenings react with acids to produce carbon dioxide, the gas that causes these baked goods to rise.

To do its work, baking soda relies on an acidic ingredient in the recipe, such as buttermilk, sour cream, yogurt, or molasses. It's important to use the right amount of baking soda in recipes. Use more baking soda than can be neutralized by the acidic ingredient, and you'll end up with a metallic-tasting, coarse-crumbed quick bread or cake.

Baking powder is nothing more than baking soda (about one-quarter to one-third of the total makeup) mixed with a dry acid and double-dried cornstarch. The cornstarch absorbs moisture and keeps the baking soda and the dry acid apart during storage, preventing premature production of the gas. When baking powder becomes wet, the acid comes into contact with the baking soda, producing carbon dioxide. Most commercial baking powders are "double-acting." In other words, they contain two kinds of acid—one that produces a carbon dioxide reaction at room temperature, the other responding only to heat.

In contrast, baking soda is only single-acting, as is homemade baking powder, which contains only one acid, cream of tartar. Baking soda reacts immediately on contact with an acid. In a muffin, for example, it is important to have an early release of carbon dioxide during the batter preparation so that small bubbles will be created to form the foundation of the cell structure. These cells expand during baking because of additional carbon dioxide production caused by the action of the second leavening acid in baking powder, and the dough firms up into the final muffin structure.

EQUIPMENT

BAKING SHEETS

We tested 11 brands of baking sheets and found that sheets with shiny surfaces do a better job than darker pans, especially those with black nonstick surfaces. We found that scones and biscuits tend to burn on the bottom when baked on dark sheets. We prefer baking sheets that are rimless on at least one side so that baked goods can be slid right onto a cooling rack.

FOOD PROCESSOR

The steel blade on a food processor is the best tool for cutting cold butter into dry ingredients to make biscuits and scones. Choose a large model (an 11-cup workbowl is best) that can handle a full batch of dough. You won't be able to make a dozen biscuits in a small food processor. Also, check out the weight of the base. A 10-pound food processor will stay put on the counter, no matter what kind of dough you are kneading. Lighter models may bounce around when trying to knead stiff yeast bread doughs.

ICE CREAM SCOOP

A spring-loaded ice cream scoop ensures uniform muffin size and clean dispensing when transferring the dough to the holes in a muffin tin. We use an ice cream scoop that holds one-half cup, so one full scoop will fill each hole in a regular muffin tin. If you use an ice cream scoop, don't attempt to smooth out the top of the batter in each muffin hole. The oven heat will do this.

LOAF PANS

In our testing, we found that dark-colored nonstick loaf pans brown banana breads and other quick breads evenly. Breads, especially sweet ones, can burn in glass loaf pans. Also, pans with handles at either end are easier to work with and should prevent you from sticking your oven mitt into the edge of a baked loaf. Even with the nonstick coating, we recommend greasing and flouring your loaf pan to ensure easy release.

MIXERS

We find that standing mixers are easy to use (hands are free to add ingredients) and do the best job of beating air into cream, egg whites, and cake batter. For quick breads, though, all that's needed is a handheld mixer.

When shopping for a standing mixer, look for a heavy model with a single paddle-type attachment. Less expensive models that use classic beaters are only a small step up in quality from handheld mixers. Paddle attachments are much better at incorporating ingredients and won't become clogged with batter or dough.

As for handheld mixers, avoid those models with old-fashioned beaters that have a thick post running down the center. Look for beaters with thin, curved wires and open centers. Handles that slope higher in the front and lower in back are easier on your arm.

MUFFIN PAPERS

We baked muffins with and without paper liners. Those baked in papers were shorter than those baked right in the cup, but they also had a more rounded, filled-out look. When peeling off the papers, we lost a good portion of the muffin. Muffin papers also keep the muffin's sides from browning as well as those baked right in the cup. We prefer to grease muffin tins instead of using paper liners.

MUFFIN TINS

Muffin tins come in a variety of finishes and sizes. As with loaf pans, we found that tins with dark nonstick finishes promote deep browning and are preferred. Each hole in a standard muffin tin can hold about one-half cup of batter.

In our research, we ran across a few recipes with instructions to grease the bottom, but not the sides, of the muffin holes. We tested two batches of muffins—one baked in greased holes, the other baked in holes in which only the bottoms were greased. We observed no difference between those baked in holes that had been greased completely and those baked in holes with greased bottoms only. Since it's difficult to grease the bottom but not the sides of a muffin hole, we just grease the entire hole.

TECHNIQUES

There are several methods commonly used to assemble quick breads. The most common, often referred to as the quick bread method, calls for mixing wet and dry ingredients separately, pouring wet into dry, then mixing them together as quickly as possible. Batters for pancakes, popovers, and many quick breads rely on this approach.

A second technique, often called the creaming method and more common to cake batters, starts with creaming the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Eggs and flavorings are beaten in, then the dry and liquid ingredients are alternately added. For the best results, we like to cream butter in a tall, narrow bowl.

A third possibility comes from the tradition of biscuit and pie-dough making, in which cold fat is cut into the dry ingredients with fingertips, a fork, a pastry blender, or the blade of a food processor. Once the mixture has achieved a cornmeal-like texture with pea-sized flecks, liquid is added and quickly mixed in.

We have tested these three mixing methods on all of the recipes in this book. Often, we have found that the same ingredients will bake up quite differently depending on how they are combined.

DO-AHEAD TRICK

Muffins, biscuits, scones, and quick breads are morning food. However, many cooks balk at any early-morning baking project. To save time and energy, we found it was possible to measure and mix dry ingredients ahead of time. Simply place the flour, sugar, leavener, and salt in a covered container at room temperature. In the morning, add the butter and dairy items, and the batter will be ready before your oven is preheated.

STORAGE METHODS

When testing recipes for this book, we found ourselves with lots of muffins and biscuits and quick breads on our hands. Invariably, we tried to store them. Here are the results of our tests.

Biscuits and cornbread are the least promising candidates for storage. These baked goods taste best warm, although they are fine at room temperature. However, when stored for more than a few hours, biscuits become soggy and cornbread dries out and crumbles. The refrigerator or freezer is not kind to these items.

Quick breads (Irish soda bread, banana bread, and cranberry-nut bread) are the easiest to store. If wrapped tightly in plastic (once cooled), the breads will stay fresh for a couple of days. Slices are also delicious when toasted, even when not quite fresh.

Muffins and scones are best eaten the day they are made. Once cooled, they can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Day-old muffins can be sliced in half and reheated in a toaster oven, with the cut sides facing up. Toast the muffins for four or five minutes, then slather them with butter and/or jam. Scones don't really reheat well and are best eaten at room temperature. Day-old scones will not be as good as fresh ones but are certainly acceptable.

For longer storage, muffins and scones should be frozen in an airtight container. We found that muffins freeze better than scones. That said, a different method should be used for thawing muffins and scones.

We tested thawing both kinds of baked goods on the counter, in a toaster oven, in a warm oven, and in the microwave. Muffins thawed in the toaster oven were doughy and heated unevenly. Muffins thawed in the microwave were damp and, again, heated unevenly. Muffins thawed at room temperature were our least favorite. The outside was soft and mushy, the inside was doughy, and the flavor muted and old tasting.

We found that muffins are best thawed in a 350-degree oven. Place frozen muffins on a baking sheet and then immediately into a preheated oven. Corn muffins take 15 minutes to defrost, classic muffins 20 minutes, and bran 25 minutes. (These are good estimates. To test for doneness, cut a muffin in half from top to bottom and feel the inside. If frozen or still cold, continue heating 3 to 5 minutes more.) Classic and bran muffins make for great eating when treated this way. The crust gets crispier than the exterior of a just-baked muffin and the inside is moist, tender, and full-flavored. The bran muffins are very aromatic. Corn muffins seem to dry out, but they are still acceptable.

Scones thawed in a regular or toaster oven dried out too much. This was particularly noticeable with oatmeal scones, which became very crumbly. The microwave made the scones soggy. We had the best luck thawing scones on the counter to room temperature. This takes two to three hours and works best with scones that don't have any fresh fruit, which ends up tasting stale after freezing and makes the scones too moist.