question: modifications to cake-type batters?

[cimorene]

i made orange chocolate chip muffins, which are a maträtt i became addicted to in my stint at amherst college.  i found a recipe using google, which is what i've been doing most of the time when i wanted a recipe (in general as opposed to one of my mom's signatures).  so they are absolutely as heavenly as i remembered or even more so, especially when i was licking the batter off spoons and spatula--delicious. 

however, after tasting i believe they should have been more intensely orange-flavoured and also moister, so the recipe needs fiddling.  anyone know offhand--when you want to moisten a muffin/cake type recipe, what do you add?  liquid/butter, or eggs?  or both?  or should i just remove some of the dry flour mixture in general and see if that works?  here is the recipe as it stands:


Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins
Yield: 1 dozen large, 24 small

Ingredients:
1 large unpeeled orange, cut up in small pieces
1/2 cup or 1,3 dL orange juice
1 egg
1/2 cup or 130 g butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or 1,5 teaspoon vanilla sugar
1 3/4 cups or 4,5 dL flour
3/4 cup or 1,9 dL sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 or 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (optional) or 200 g dark chocolate chopped into small chunks

Instructions:
Cut washed orange into 7 or 8 pieces (then cut those pieces again into quarters or sixths if you have a small food processor). Remove seeds. Combine orange pieces and juice and blend in blender or food processor. Mix with egg, butter and vanilla (but not vanilla sugar) in a medium bowl. In separate bowl measure flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk together thoroughly. Mix dry mixture with orange batter only until well combined. Add chocolate chips and mix gently to avoid overmixing. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake about 15 minutes at 200 degrees C, 400 F. Watch carefully. Remove from tins after 5 minutes of cooling.

Comments

[phineasjones.livejournal.com]

ok, i am a vegan, so my knowledge on eggs is spotty, but i don't think more egg would help with your moisture issue. egg whites are drying, i think. perhaps changing the yolk to white ratio?

replacing some of your fat (butter in this case) with applesauce can make your baking more moist. it can sometime change the flavor but not as much as you might think.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

well, i doubt that apple flavour would even show up in this case with all the orange, but that's got more the air of a trick. they don't have applesauce in finland, either. there has to be a regular way with the ratios of basic ingredients--flour, egg, butter, liquid--because i know that kind of thing even applies with plain bread. i'm not sure how i'd go about finding it on the internet, though.

[strangelette.livejournal.com]

I may not cook but I do watch a lot of the Food Network.

Alton Brown has a standard muffin recipe, and psychotic fans have transcribed the episode in its entirety here:
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season7/Muffin/MuffinTrans.htm

And a breakdown of carrot muffins here (it looks like the oil may help moisten the muffins):
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season8/carrots/taproot_orange_trans.htm

(fan page = http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/GEFP/index.htm )

[omega-h.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if this is helpful, but all my favourite recipes (about the same size or a bit smaller) have 2 eggs.

And I'm very tempted to try this out. I have to invite somebody over or we'll eat it all again :(

[emmuzka.livejournal.com]

hmm. Adding butter or oil makes a batter more moist, as do the additions of any kind of fruit. Also, use as little flour as you can to make the recipe work, since extra flour make the baking products harder and dryer.

Also, you might want to try out my chocolate muffin/cake recipe sometime. It's (or was) my favorite because it's super easy and delicious.

8dl flour
6dl sugar
4dl hot water
200g butter, melted
1dl real cocoa powder
3tea spoons vanilla sugar
8tea spoons baking powder
2 bags or chocolate chips (the block chocolate in bags, meant for icing)

Mix all dry ingredients except the chocolate. Pour the hot (as hot as you can have from the tap)water to the melted butter and mix that with the dry ingredients. Add one of the chocolate bags, mix well. Fill muffing forms or pour the batter to a floured cake tin. Bake muffins in 175 degrees 20-30min (depending of the size of the muffin cups) or, if you are making a cake, 175 degrees, one hour, in the bottom level of the owen. Use the other chocolate bag as icing.

(I think that the word "icing" is only used when talking about sugar icing. What do you call it whn you cover something with chocolate?)

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i don't know about bakers' specific usage but in common american parlance, it's icing or frosting interchangeably--it just varies by region. i'll copy the cake recipe down. i am always up for more baking.

also, thanks! next time i buy some chocolate i'll try it with more orange and more oil. i think i could use less flour, as the batter was quite thick and kind of stiff.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i had that thought too and i have no idea why there are fewer eggs--maybe to make it lighter, maybe because it was already so thick from the orange peel... but i can try it that way too!

[misspamela.livejournal.com]

Hm. I'd say more oj, more orange, or another egg.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

if a batter is too dry / compact, always start by reducing the amount of starch in it, yeah, i'd say. so, reduce amount of flour a bit, try, and try again with even less if needed... That's what I'd try first, anyway, but i'm not an *expert* baker.

[isilya]

I'd add half a squooshed banana, or some grated apple.

[neery.livejournal.com]

I'd second using either less flour of more oil. Using more chocolate helps, too, but if you don't want to change the actual flavor, that's not the ideal solution, I guess.