How to Make Muffin Tops

Make Perfect High-Domed Muffin Tops!

Everyone knows that the top of the muffin is always the best part. Muffin tops are crunchy, have the most flavor, and can even taste like fluffy cookies if you do it right. They’re not crusty or sweaty like the bottoms of the muffins sometimes are. Once you start making muffin tops, you’ll never go back to standard muffins.

Use a Muffin Top Pan

All it takes to make muffin tops is a muffin top pan, muffin batter, and an oven. You don’t have to waste the muffin bottoms anymore with the muffin top pan, and it makes great domed muffin tops for you and your family to enjoy.

A muffin top pan comes with six over-sized cavities—about four inches in diameter. But the cavities are only 3/8-inch deep. If you load these cavities with a stiff batter, you will make high-topped, jumbo muffin tops. Six tops will equal twelve regular-sized muffins or six jumbo muffins.

Because you have shallow indentations on the pan, the muffins remove very easily. If they stick at all, let them sit for a couple of minutes.

Muffin Top Testing in Our Test Kitchen

We have a test kitchen at our facility in Rigby, Idaho, where we test products and develop mixes and recipes. We tested the nonstick muffin top pan from Norpro using both recipes and mixes, experimenting to learn what works and what doesn’t. Here are our findings along with a recipe that we enjoyed.

Making High-Domed Muffin Tops

Everyone knows high-domed muffins are always the most appealing. The same goes for muffin tops. You can make high domes in a muffin top pan as well as in a standard pan, but the former tends to be easier. The techniques are the same.

Many muffin recipes call for high heat at the beginning of the baking period to create the rise necessary for attractive domes. You can do the same with a muffin top pan, but because the batter is above the pan, it is not as necessary.

Thin Muffin Batter vs. Stiff Batter

Whether your muffin batter is thin or stiff, you will still get some tasty muffin tops. In the test kitchen, we found that thin batter makes for flatter muffin tops. This is because less of the thin batter can be put into the shallow cavities of the muffin top pan. However, you will have more muffin tops this way.

With stiff batter, it’s easier to pile the batter into the muffin top pan. With stiff batter mounded high in the pan, you will bake high-domed muffin tops.

Muffin Tops Baking Time and Yield

Because the batter is not as deep, it takes less time to bake muffin tops. Reduce the baking time for your regular muffin recipe by about a third. For most recipes and mixes, baking at 375 degrees for 15 to 16 minutes was about right.

If you are making high-domed muffin tops they will be larger than regular muffins. A 12-muffin mix or recipe yields six large, high-domed tops. A flatter muffin top is equal to a standard muffin.

Banana Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffin Tops

Everyone likes chocolate muffins. We modified our Banana Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe to make these muffin tops. They are very good.

This is sweet enough; it’s almost like a cake. In fact, you can serve it with whipped cream or ice cream and little fudge topping for a special treat.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 brown sugar
2/3 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup ripe bananas, mashed (about two smaller bananas)
1 teaspoon banana flavor
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
In another bowl, mash the bananas. Whisk two large eggs and add those to the bananas. Add the oil, milk, flavor, brown sugar, and sour cream. Blend well. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips.
With a spatula, mix the dry ingredients into the liquid mixture. Stir until just combined. Spoon the batter into greased muffin top tins.
Bake for 15 minutes. Let the muffins sit in the tins for a few minutes and then remove them to wire racks to cool. Makes 8 to 10 muffin tops.