Muffins: Flavor Ideas Great For Dessert

Muffins are baked treats somewhat similar to bread or cakes. They look like cupcakes because their base is cylindrical and the top is rounded and arched. Muffins are, typically, sweet and in modern cooking, they have fillings such as fruit jams and/or toppings like chocolate chips. Muffins make great desserts, especially when served with ice cream.

Muffins are made or baked in a muffin tin or pan, which is a baking pan with depressions shaped in a cup where the muffin batter is poured. The standard size of a muffin cup is about 2 and a half inches in diameter but there are muffin tins with larger cups about 3 ¼ inches in diameter to make jumbo muffins. There are also mini muffins and to make these, you would need a miniature muffin tin, which has cups about 2 inches or less in diameter.

Muffin Flavors

Fruits are common ingredients in muffins. Some popular fruits used in making muffins are apples, banana, blueberry, cherry, lemon, pineapple, rhubarb, raspberry, and strawberry. Other food items usually mixed in muffin recipes are nuts, chocolate, cinnamon, peanut butter, pumpkin, vanilla, and mint. Muffins also typically combine two or more flavors such as apple cinnamon, blueberry chocolate and walnut maple. The flavor combinations are practically limitless so feel free to experiment in making your dessert muffins.

There are also many ways to dress up your dessert muffins. You can simply sprinkle sugar, chopped nuts or grated cheese on top and your dessert muffins would be extra tasty.
Some other delicious muffin toppings are shredded coconut, crushed graham crackers, oats, poppy seeds, and orange glaze. You can also try these combinations for your muffin toppings: fruit and preserves, cinnamon hazelnut, cinnamon sugar, and oat almonds. To add some texture and flavor to your dessert muffins, sprinkle any of these topping combinations over your muffin batter before you bake them.

Here are some more muffin baking tips:

• Do not forget use non stick cooking spray in each muffin cup so you can easily remove your muffins without damaging it
• Place paper liners in the muffin cups so they will be easier to clean
• When pouring the batter onto the muffin cups, leave sufficient space for the muffins to expand so you will get a nice rounded top instead of a flat one. The cups should not be more than three fourths full.
• If after baking, the muffins stuck to the bottom of the cups, place the hot muffin pan down on a damp towel and after 2 minutes, you should be able to take your muffins out.

Muffins are always popular desserts. The perfect ones are moist on the inside with a brown thin crust on the outside. They are easy to make whether you want to use a muffin mix or mix your own ingredients. Try some of the flavor and topping ideas above and you will be sure to have mouth-watering muffins for dessert.