"batter" news and stories

Kuchen batter. Photo: Smitten Kitchen

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you see this picture from Deb at Smitten Kitchen?

We're willing to bet a hundred truffles it's that you want to lick the batter of off that beater. To make it even more tempting (if that's possible), this particular batter was prepared for a plum kuchen -- a sweet, yeasty German cake -- adapted from a recipe featured in Gourmet employing a handful of delicious staples like butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, creamy whole milk yogurt and a swirl of lemon zest.

Sounds good enough to eat ... before it's even cooked, that is.

[Via Smitten Kitchen]

I'm a chronic muffin baker, and I love adding whatever I have in the kitchen into the mix -- chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruits, seeds, marshmallows, oats, really anything. The problem with adding extra ingredients to muffins, however, is that they frequently sink. It's not so bad with seeds and other light additions, but it become very annoying with chocolate chips and heavier ingredients.

There are tons of suggestions about preventing chocolate chips from sinking, but some are definitely more useful than others. Firstly, you can try coating chocolate chips in flour before folding them into your mixture. I've found this to be moderately helpful, but I've read accounts of people who call it completely useless. You can also make sure that your batter is thick enough to suspend chocolate chips -- the thinner the batter, the more likely they are to sink. If you stand by your thin batter however, try using smaller, lighter chips, or reserving half of the chips to sprinkle on top after you've spooned the batter into the muffin cups.

The problem isn't limited to muffins, so feel free to try these tips with anything that you are baking. And though these are some of my favorite methods for suspending chips and other ingredients, I'm sure there are others out there, so please share any that work for you!