So yesterday, I’m close by to Sunshine Plaza, I decided to pop in to Delicious Muffins.
This was my second visit in two months or so. If you know me, a second visit is pretty high praise.
The first time I give something a try, it’s usually when I’m on the move, on an impulse. I don’t have time to analyse the product and it’s more a taste test.
These muffins do pass the taste test. But more than that, these muffins pass the muffin test. In Singapore, most muffins sold under the name “muffin” taste and feel like cake rather than muffins. These muffins are worthy of the muffin name.
So this time, I brought home the muffins and photographed them.
Muffin analysis time.
But before that, just a little extra information. At Delicious Muffins, the best selling muffin is the Banana Walnut, followed by the Chocolate Chip and the Orange Peel.
The walnuts are from the USA, chocolate chips from Germany. But I suspect they’re all sourced from one place: Phoon Huat.
Based on taste bud feedback, I suspect the bananas are of the Del Monte variety. It has perfect unblemished skin but is rather mashy and bland. It’s a pity. We have access to so many types of flavourful bananas, this Banana Walnut muffin could have surpassed the ordinary just by using say, the ang bak cheo (red meat banana).
$1.30 a muffin is not cheap, in my opinion, especially for one this size. Pictured above are the Banana Walnut muffin and the Orange Peel muffin. Note the difference in the height of the muffin. The former: good. The latter: bad.
Note also how the latter is flat, rather than raised.
Because the muffin rises at the right time and temperature, the surface is allowed to break, causing crevices such as those indicated by the yellow arrows above.
This is a good thing. A muffin must always break the surface, in my opinion.
A pound cake, on the other hand, should not. A pound cake that has a broken surface has been cooked at too high a temperature.
Just walk through any HDB estate and peer into the bakeries. Look at the pound cake. Notice the butt crack crevice in the middle of the cake? It has been cooked too fast at too high a heat. This is a fault.
But we want crevices in a muffin. Not the butt crack crevice. But crevices that like a map of a river.
Compare the Orange Peel muffin.
The muffin is flat, devoid of crevices of any kind. In my opinion, this looks like a cup cake rather than a muffin.
Compare the two types of muffin. Which looks more exciting to you? For me, it’s the Banana Walnut. On looks alone, this muffin is calling to me: I’m higher and exciting and I’m nearly bursting with ingredients. I can’t wait to be eaten!
Now the good news is, this is not indicative of the bakers’ skill. Why do I say this?
On both ocassions that I visited the shop, both these muffins displayed these same characteristics that I’ve shown you.
The Chocolate muffin, that I’ve never tasted, shares roughly the same height as the Banana Walnut, but like the Orange Peel muffin, the surface does not break like the Banana Walnut one.
So what could the problem be?
To me, a muffin is a very humble little thing. Like the cup cake, it is baked in a paper cup.
But a cup cake, is often decorated with loud bold coloured icing and fancy candy rice or chocolate rice.
The cup cake is really all on the surface. Inside, it’s just a plain sponge cake rarely containing anything.
A muffin on the other hand, reveals very little on the surface. But when you look inside, there’s more treasure to be unearthed.
Look at the Orange Peel muffin. There’s so much sprinkled on the surface, much like the Chocolate one that I did not purchase and photograph.
Compare the Banana Walnut one. In relation there appears to be fewer ingredients on the surface. I believe this allows the surface of the muffin to breathe and break open. The weight of the Orange Peel is too great and so the surface cannot break.
The Orange Peel muffin has been stifled by a baker who wants to show off the amount of ingredients of his muffin.
If you go to the shop, take a look at the Chocolate Muffin. You may ask, why is it the Chocolate muffin can rise?
Simple. A chocolate chip is not as dense and heavy as the orange peel. But again, the Chcolate muffin’s surface doesn’t break. The batter has the strength to rise under the weight of the Chocolate chips, but doesn’t have the strength to break through the surface to create the kind of surface texture seen on the Banana Walnut.
If the baker wants the Orange Peel muffin and the Chocolate muffin to reach its full potential, the baker should mix half the orange peel and chocolate chips into the respective batter and leave the other half on top of the muffin. These muffins will then be able to rise and crack at the top.
On looks alone, the Banana Walnut wins. No wonder it is the hottest muffin in the shop. But if the Orange Peel muffin is allowed to grow by being less of a show off, I think the Orange Peel muffin could well de-throne the Banana Walnut.
Okay, enough on looks. Let’s go into the heart of the muffin.
The muffin should have an uneven fairly open and light crumb. That is to say, got big hole and small hole.
In my opinion, this particular Orange Peel muffin could do with a few more big holes, making it a little lighter. But it is pretty good.
The above shows clearly a dough that hasn’t been over mixed. The gluten is light and undeveloped.
To give you an idea of what even closed texture is, take a look at a sponge cake. Small tiny even sized holes.
In contrast, a baguette should have an open and uneven crumb. From huge air holes to small ones. The more uneven the crumb, the lovelier the baguette. Which is why Delifrance should be destroyed for the kind of baguette it sells.
By the way, the Orange Peel muffin also is filled with orange sacs (shown at the bottom right corner of the picture above).
Now when you unpeel the paper cup from the muffin, fairly large crumbs of the muffin should actually fall off.
This is a good thing. The large and light crumb indicates the uneven texture and lightness of the muffin.
In contrast, peeling a cup cake from it’s paper cup will give you small crumbs, if at all. Usually the crust of a cup cake stays adhered to the cake itself or the paper.
If you wish to share your muffin, please do not use a knife but break it into half using your fingers, as I did for the picture above.
Anal people who want an exact 50% when they share half will not be happy with this, but if you ever cut a muffin you will be destroying the lovely characteristic crumb that makes a muffin a muffin.
Compare this picture below to the one above. The muffin below has been hacked into half by a knife held by a person whom I shall not name.
Look at how those air holes have been destroyed. It looks more like a sponge cake than a muffin. The baker worked so hard to create a light and fluffy creation and it has been completely destroyed. Mashing up a muffin like this is a huge crime in my book.
For this same reason, salad lovers, do not cut your vegetables. Instead, tear the leaves. They will tear along the edges of the air sacs of the leaf. This makes your salad stay fresher and crunchier longer.
Okay, I can go on and on overanalysing the muffin. But for now, I shall eat it.