Can you prepare muffin batter the night before, store in the refrigerator, and bake off the next morning?--Brad You can prepare muffin batter ahead of time. I'm not sure I would want to leave a batter with whole, uncooked eggs too long, but you should be safe if you are using fresh eggs and you cook the batter within 48 hours. Because... Read more →

I have a pan I think is called "muffin tops", which makes 6 muffins 1/2" deep and 3" wide. What baking time, temperature and can I use any muffin or cake mixture?--Helen You may recall the Seinfeld episode where Elaine suggests just selling the tops of muffins, but why are they the best part? Because they are crunchy, and because of the... Read more →

My wife makes home made bread and we love it, but she can't seem to get it to rise enough. This is regular dough bread. She lets it rise once then forms it in the pans and lets it rise again, but it doesn't raise enough to suit us. What can we do? There are a number of things your wife can try, or check, that might help. First, be sure... Read more →

I'm trying to formulate a whole wheat lemon-blueberry pancake mix. I am using hard white wheat flour, lemon juice powder and lemon peel granules for flavor. I'm wondering if the lemon effects the cooking of the pancakes by reacting with the baking powder. It seems like the first couple of pancakes are better then subsequent ones, which... Read more →

I have a problem with Yorkshire pudding that I hope you can help. My recipe is: 1 cup all purpose flour 3/4 cup cold homogenized milk and 4 eggs I put 1/8th of an inch of extra virgin olive oil in the muffin pans, heat the oil up just to the smoking temp then add the chilled batter and bake it for 25-30 minutes. I bake it at 425... Read more →

I love to bake home-made cakes, and I always sift my dry ingredients together three times before adding them into the mixer. I do this so that I won't have any lumps and so that I am certain the cake will be well mixed. My mother insists that "over sifting" will make the cake dry and that she has read this in several publications... Read more →

Why do some bread recipes say to let the dough rise once before forming into loaves while others say to let it rise twice? -- Eileen There are three basic factors at work in the amount of time that dough is allowed to rise -- ingredients, convenience and flavor. Doughs that are allowed to rise longer tend to develop more complex... Read more →