Q: Why aren’t you supposed to stir muffins too much?
A: The short answer is, because you don’t want them to be tough.
The long answer has to do with the proteins in flour. Flour has a protein known as “gluten” – long strands that, when developed, act more and more like rubber bands, binding the ingredients around the flour together. When you add moisture to flour and mix, knead, or otherwise work the moisture into the flour, these strands of gluten begin to develop. The result of this is a more “solid” texture. This is why you knead yeast bread and why roux works – the protein holds things together.
However, in muffins, you don’t *want* the proteins to hold the ingredients together. The flour is there more to bulk up the mixture and add body. Muffins (this goes for any quick bread, really) also use baking powder or baking soda for the lift. These aren’t very strong leavenings – they will add some air to the mixture, but they aren’t able to fight against very much gluten (unlike yeast).
What happens when you stir quick bread, is you start to develop those long strands of protein in the flour. This makes it more difficult for your leavening (what makes a baked good rise) to actually add air when it goes into the oven. It also toughens up the baked good, because the protein isn’t nearly as tender once it starts holding things together.
So when you’re making muffins, be very gentle when you mix the liquids and dry ingredients together. Mix as little as you can (it’s OK if some flour isn’t entirely combined) and get them into the oven quickly. This will help your muffins rise even higher, and you’ll have more tender crumbs in those delicious muffin caps!
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