The ratio and mixing method for quick breads I examined in the last post can be applied to more than just cornbread. In this post I want to examine how the same basic ratio can produce other familiar baked goods with simple modifications. And the ratio I’m talking about here is my revision of Ruhlman’s ratio for quick breads: 3 parts by weight each of flour and liquid to 1 part each of egg and fat (or using about 1/3 the weight each of egg and fat as that of flour and liquid). In both of the following examples, the mixing method is the same: combine dry ingredients, combine wet ingredients and liquid fat, gently incorporate wet into dry, and bake immediately.
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Blueberry Muffins
Dry Ingredients:
Flour – 10 oz.
Baking Powder – 2 tsp.
Baking Soda – 1/4 tsp.
Salt – 1 tsp.
Sugar – 5 oz. (50% of the total flour weight)
Wet Ingredients:
Melted Butter – 4 oz. (3.2 oz. butterfat)
Egg – 1 whole egg + 1 yolk (about 3 oz – I used extra large eggs)
Liquid – 9 oz. (roughly equal parts sour cream, buttermilk, and yogurt)
Finely Grated Zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
Garnish:
Fresh Blueberries – about 2 cups tossed in flour
Notes – Citrus zest complements fruited muffins beautifully – had I been making chocolate chip muffins, I would have used a little vanilla extract or fresh vanilla bean instead. Any garnish used in a quick bread recipe should be tossed in flour first to prevent it from sinking to the bottom during baking. I folded the blueberries into my batter after mixing the batter. I sprayed my paper liners with baking spray before filling them with batter. Using a #20 disher/scooper, the amount of batter from this recipe gave me exactly 12 portions with no leftover batter. I sprinkled the tops of the unbaked muffins generously with sugar before baking. I baked them for 20 minutes at 375°F – until they had started to brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the middle came out clean.
Comments – The fruit in a muffin should be the star of the show. If you use a more sour fruit like raspberries, strawberries, or blackberries, you might want to increase the sugar slightly – but the sugar should never dominate the taste of the muffin.
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Pumpkin Bread
Dry Ingredients:
Flour – 10 oz.
Baking Powder – 2 tsp.
Baking Soda – 1/4 tsp.
Salt – 1 tsp.
Sugar – 7 oz. (70% of the total flour weight)
Cinnamon – 1 tsp.
Nutmeg – 1/2 tsp.
Cardamom – 1/2 tsp.
Unsweetened Cocoa – 1 heaping Tbsp. (for color)
Wet Ingredients:
Melted Butter – 4 oz. (3.2 oz. butterfat)
Egg – 1 whole egg + 1 yolk (about 3 oz – I used extra large eggs)
Liquid – 15 oz. canned pumpkin + 2 oz. sour cream – counts as 9 1/2 oz.
Vanilla Extract – 2 tsp.
Garnish:
Chopped Pecans and Dried Cranberries – about 1 cup each tossed in flour
Notes – Any garnish used in a quick bread recipe should be tossed in flour first to prevent it from sinking to the bottom during baking. I folded the pecans and dried cranberries into my batter after mixing the batter. The only changes here from the blueberry muffins are: (1) using more sugar, (2) adding dry spices to the dry ingredients (cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom), (3) adding a little cocoa powder for color, (4) adding liquid spices to the liquid ingredients (vanilla extract), (5) using different garnish in the quick bread (mixed in the same way), & (6) using puréed pumpkin for most of the liquid component. When using things like pumpkin or bananas for a quick bread, I count them as liquid at 1/2 their total weight – in this case, I used a 15 ounce can of pumpkin so I counted it as 7.5 ounces of liquid and added a couple ounces of sour cream to bring the total liquid component up to about the same as the weight of the flour in the recipe. This recipe made enough batter for a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan – I sprayed my pan with baking spray before filling it with batter. I also sprinkled the top of the batter generously with sugar before baking. I baked this pumpkin bread at 350°F until the internal temperature registered 200°F on an instant read digital thermometer (about 70 minutes).
Comments – I used more sugar with the pumpkin because it needs the additional sugar to bring out the flavor. If I had made this recipe using bananas instead, I would have used less weight of banana purée, less sugar, different spices, and a little more liquid (still counting the bananas at half their weight as liquid). You want to use just enough sugar to support the dominant flavor of the quick bread – you shouldn’t wind up with a pumpkin bread that tastes like pumpkin-flavored cotton candy.
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In both of these recipes the fundamental ratio of primary ingredients is unchanged: roughly the same amounts each of flour and liquid with about a third that weight each of egg and fat. Leavening and salt were constant. And all of these ingredients were practically unchanged from the cornbread recipe in my last post. The amount of sugar changed as appropriate. Spices and garnish were added.
And while I believe that knowing this fundamental ratio of ingredients can provide anyone with a helpful springboard for creative baking, I do not mean to imply that it is the only route to making fantastic quick breads. There are many tested recipes from reputable sources that diverge from this ratio considerably – but the divergence likely comes from a more thorough and experienced understanding of how ingredients will behave. But any time I look at a recipe for a quick bread, I always examine the ingredients carefully and ask myself how far the apple falls from this fundamental ratio tree.
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