By erica martinez
Alton Brown's Trick For Delectable Top-Heavy Muffins
Celebrity chef Alton Brown's latest "Over The Top Blueberry Muffins" recipe requires filling a regular-sized muffin pan with more batter to achieve bigger muffin tops.
Most muffin recipes advise against overfilling as the batter rises in the oven, overflows, and sticks to the top of the pan, but this is exactly what Brown wants you to do.
Brown starts by coating a standard-sized muffin pan with nonstick baking spray, covering the muffin indents and the flat top of the pan so the overflow batter doesn't stick.
Brown then whisks the dry ingredients — flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt — and then separately whisks the wet ingredients together.
Regular muffin tins are meant to hold about a half cup of batter to let the tops rise without overflowing, but Brown suggests pouring a full cup of batter into each muffin portion.
When baked, the cups that were once filled to the brim will result in delicious muffins with beautifully oversized, browned, dome-like tops.