What are the characteristics of a muffin from understirred batter?
Overstirred batter? Account for these effects. Understirred batter: The muffins will have a coarse and crumbly crumb and be of low volume due to inadequate gluten development. The top will be flat and there will be brown specks of undissolved soda on the surface due to insufficient moistening of the ingredients for optimum CO2 production. Overstirred batter: The gluten becomes overdeveloped resulting in a more elastic batter and tougher muffin. The surface becomes smooth with a pointed top. The interior of the muffin will have tunnels converging in the peak. These tunnels develop as steam and CO2 collect in a few areas and begin to exert pressure on the cell walls. As the batter is heated more quickly near the outer edges and bottom of the muffin, these areas lose their ability to stretch first, whereas the center and upper region remain elastic. This continued elasticity permits the gluten in the center and upper region to stretch upward with the pressure from the leavening gases. Glu
