Aunt Paca's Foolproof Muffins

There is no more foolproof muffin recipe than the recipe for Aunt Paca's traditional muffins. This is proven by everyone who has left proof of it in our cooking group: if you join, you'll see all the comments and photos of the muffins people have made, noting how wonderful those lemon-scented fluffy muffins turn out. Fluffy, tall and very easy to make, without a doubt a recipe to keep.

The recipe is called that for a very simple reason: it's the family's long-standing recipe of Jesús Martínez, whom I thank first, for bringing that recipe to our community, because I can certainly say that out of the hundreds of recipes shared there, this is the one that has been repeated the most and received the most admiration. And secondly, I'm grateful that he gave me permission to share it here on the blog. Thank you!

I chose this recipe to test the Kaiser WMF muffin tin, a new tin that surprised me with how lightweight it was: I had heard about Kaiser’s merits, a German brand with a very high-quality non-stick coating, they told me... But when I held the tin it was really light and I thought it might lack the heft to bake properly. So I needed to try it.

And the recipe rose wonderfully and the batter baked as evenly as possible! Besides rising perfectly in a recipe that requires a lot of initial heat, the bottoms of the muffins didn't burn at all. So the test was more than passed, I am very satisfied with the tin, and I'm happy to tell you that I highly recommend taking advantage of these German tins that are such a great value.

Ingredients

• 350 g wheat flour
• 100 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 100 ml sunflower oil
• 250 ml milk
• 3 eggs
• 200 gr sugar
• 1 pinch of salt (1/4 of a coffee spoon)
• 1 packet of baking powder of 16 gr ("Royal")
• Zest of 1 lemon

Preparation

1. In the KitchenAid bowl with the whisk attachment, or in a standard bowl with a hand mixer, add the ingredients in the following order:
2. Add the eggs and the sugar (you don't need to separate or whip any part of the eggs).
3. Add the zest of one lemon.
4. Add both oils in a thin stream, little by little.
5. Add the milk, little by little, letting it mix with the rest of the ingredients.
6. Add the flour, the pinch of salt and the baking powder, all previously sifted.
7. Mix until the batter is well integrated, cover with cling film and let rest in the refrigerator for at least half an hour and up to 12 hours (you can leave it in the fridge overnight if you want).
8. Preheat the oven to 250°C and take the batter out of the fridge.
9. Place the paper liners in the muffin tin and fill them to 3/4 of their height.
10. Sprinkle a pinch of sugar on each one (not too much, to allow the top to rise).
11. Bake for 5 - 8 minutes after placing them in the oven at that high temperature and with the tin positioned low in the oven (at 1/3 of the oven's height), so the tops can rise. Then lower to 185°C and bake for about 15 more minutes (it can be up to 20, depending on how much they cooked in the first 5 - 8 minutes after being placed in the oven).
12. When they look done, remove from the oven and let cool on a rack.

Notes

• *I have tried the recipe with 200 ml of olive oil (instead of mixing 100 ml olive and 100 ml sunflower), and they turn out excellent as well.
• **If you don't want to add that much sugar, the recipe has been tested with 180 g of sugar and they also come out great both in sweetness and fluffiness.
• You'll see that the first part of the baking is at a very high temperature to push the muffins to rise. Don't get distracted! It's only 5 minutes at high temperature, then you must lower it or they'd burn.
• In the baking shown in the photos I sprinkled some sugar on the tops, but certainly not enough if you like that look: if you like your muffins with sugar on top, add more or use sugar moistened with a drop of water.