i need a recipe for Muffins - the kinds that really burst from the pan

Pulgas,

Some things that would keep muffins from rising:
- Over-mixing the wet and dry ingredients. I've made some squatty little lumps this way. It's best to pre-mix the wet ingredients (typically milk, oil and eggs) thoroughly in one bowl and to pre-mix the dry ingredients in another bowl, then stir them together. BUT, don't stir them until they make a nice, smooth batter. Instead, stop stirring when the mixture is still lumpy with bits of dry flour still showing. What seems like too little mixing usually verges on being too much.
- Inadequate leavening. Assuming that your measurements match the recipe requirements, it may be that your baking powder or soda or cream of tartar is past its useful life. There's a way to test it (stirring in water to see if it fizzes?), but I don't remember the particulars.
- Inadequate oven temperature. Perhaps you haven't allowed enough preheat time for the oven to come up to the required temperature. Perhaps your oven's actual temperature is less than the controls indicate. An inexpensive oven thermometer will tell you what the real temperature is, then you can adjust accordingly.
- Over-greasing the muffin tin. Try greasing just the bottom surface of each cup, leaving the sides dry. I'm not sure why this has any effect at all, but muffins seem to rise higher if the side walls aren't greased.

I hope this helps.

BTW, what part of Houston do you call home? I lived in Katy from 2000 to 2005.

PMcCool

Pulgas,

I just posted my spelt-flaxseed muffin recipe at the bottom of this comment here yesterday that you may find useful:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/1310#comment-4968

I have played around with various baking powder and flour amounts and find this recipe works well for me, my muffins rise up pretty high. A stiffer batter with more flour will also give you more of a bread-like crust with cracks if that's your preference, but be careful not to add so much flour they come out too heavy, you may need to add more baking powder. You will also need to fill the muffin cups to the brim to really get them overflowing when baked. Usually I'm trying to stretch out a batch of batter to give me more muffins so I only fill them about 2/3 full.

I have also found that sweetening with maple syrup has made them rise especially nicely for me, must be something with the type of sugars - I know in recipes for sugar-free muffins getting them to rise is often a problem due to no sugar, so excess baking powder/soda is called for.

I also echo PMcCool's suggestion about mixing wet and dry ingredients separately and final mixing kept to a minimum - my recipe instructs to do that as well. Also be patient with baking times - if making large muffins or a loaf, let them bake a good long time to ensure doneness in the middle. Start out at the higher temp. to get oven spring and turn down after 10-15 min. to bake the inside longer if necessary.

I'll try to take some pictures of this weekend's batch and post.

Oh - and one more note: my muffin recipe used to call for a combo of baking powder AND baking soda, which I used to think helped with the rising, but I have since read in BBA where Reinhart says the only reason to use baking soda is if the recipe has something acidic in it like sourcream to react with the soda to get the rise. Baking powder is made to rise without the added acidity. For that reason I modified the recipe to use only baking powder. Does anyone else have any opinions onf the merits of using both baking powder and baking soda in quick breads or cookies?

Good luck!

Simply Recipes has an incredible blueberry muffin recipe that turns out fabulous - try it without the berries as a base for other ingredients. It's a bit more work than your typical muffin recipe, but it's sooooo worth it.

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001412blueberry_muffins.php

I also got this recipe from simply recipes, and tried it. It came out good, you can see the photos and find the recipes here http://yelda.remgo.com/blog-bid-75