I Finally Figured Out How To Make Muffins With Perfect Bakery Tops

My family’s favorite muffin recipe is one we affectionately call “snow day muffins.” It’s a very simple chocolate chip muffin recipe that got its name when my kids were younger. When schools would declare a snow day, I’d make them early in the morning so my kids could grab them after waking up on their bonus day off while I wrote in my office. While our snow day muffins were basic ones that didn’t get very big, sometimes I do like to make fancier, prettier muffins. Big muffins that look like they came from a bakery, my favorite coffee house, or a store like Costco. 

The problem that many of us have with making big muffins isn’t measuring or mixing the ingredients. It’s that as the oh-so-coveted muffin tops take form and begin to expand, the tops usually run into each other and aren’t so pretty. But what if I told you there’s an incredibly simple secret to getting the muffin tops on large muffins to look bakery-worthy?

The Big Muffin Trick to Make Sure the Tops Are Round

The secret is to only use half the muffin pan, according to Food52. It’s a trick used at some bakeries. If you fill only every other muffin cup and leave the others totally empty, when your muffins rise, they won’t have neighbors for the tops to run into and stick to. Instead, you’ll end up with perfectly round tops on your muffins. (I bet this would work when making big cupcakes, too.)

Yes, you’ll get just six muffins instead of 12, but they will be six perfect-looking muffins. If you want 12 muffins, just bake them in two batches.

Notice I said to leave the other muffin cups totally empty? If you’ve been told that you should put some water in those empty cups so they don’t burn or warp, Cook’s Illustrated tested it out and debunked that myth a while ago. 

More Tips for the Best Large Muffins

Here are a few other tips for making the best muffins:

• Don’t overmix: To get tender muffins, mix the flour in until just combined. Overmixing the flour with the wet ingredients activates the gluten, making the muffins tougher and chewier.
• Coat add-ins with flour: If you don’t want your fruit, nuts, or chocolate chips to sink to the bottom of the muffins, toss them with flour first.
• Spray the top of the pan with nonstick spray too: If you only spray the cups, when the tops rise and spill over onto the top of the pan (as you want them to do), if you don’t have the top of the pan sprayed, too, those beautiful round tops will stick.

Armed with all of these muffin tips, I’m in the mood to bake some muffins. I think perhaps I’ll try these tips out on Apple Cinnamon Zucchini Muffins, which seem to have the perfect summer-fading-into-fall vibe.