Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Muffins, Gluten Free

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix the batter and rest it first

   Before heating the oven, whisk the gluten-free blend, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a second bowl, whisk both sugars into the melted butter and oil, then whisk in the eggs until smooth, followed by the sour cream, milk, and vanilla. Pour the wet into the dry and stir until completely smooth — unlike wheat batter, there's no gluten to overdevelop here, so thorough mixing only helps. Fold in the 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips, cover the bowl, and leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes. Do not skip this: the rice flour and starches in the blend need that time to drink up the liquid, and muffins baked from unrested batter come out gritty and sandy on the tongue.

2. 2

   Heat the oven and pan during the rest

   About 20 minutes into the rest, put a rack in the middle of the oven and heat it to 425°F (220°C). Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners or grease the cups well.

3. 3

   Fill and top

   The batter will have thickened considerably during the rest — that's exactly what you want. Scoop it into the cups, filling each to the rim, and smooth the tops with a wet fingertip since gluten-free batter won't level itself the way wheat batter does. Scatter the reserved chips over the tops and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

4. 4

   Bake hot, then drop the heat

   Bake at 425°F for 5 minutes, then reduce to 350°F (175°C) without opening the door and bake another 18 to 21 minutes. Gluten-free muffins need a few extra minutes and look deceptively underdone — wait for tops that are firmly set and springy rather than tacky, and a toothpick that comes out clean apart from melted chocolate. Pulling them early is the main cause of a gummy center.

5. 5

   Cool completely before eating

   Rest the muffins in the pan for 10 minutes, then move them to a wire rack and let them cool all the way. Gluten-free crumb sets as it cools and firms up considerably — a muffin that seems damp while warm will be perfectly tender at room temperature.

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Baker's Tips

• 1.

  Room-temperature eggs, sour cream, and milk matter more than usual here: cold dairy will firm the melted butter back into little solid flecks and give you a patchy crumb.

• 2.

  Fill the cups all the way to the rim. Half-filled cups give you flat, sad muffins — 12 full cups is the right call, not 15 shallow ones.

• 3.

  Toss the chips with a teaspoon of the measured flour before folding them in if you've had trouble with everything sinking to the bottom.

• 4.

  Spoon and level your flour rather than scooping with the measuring cup, or weigh it. Packing the cup can add 20 grams or more and dries out the crumb.

• 5.

  Swap in chopped chocolate from a bar for puddly, irregular pockets of chocolate instead of neat chip shapes.

• 6.

  If your oven runs hot, check at 14 minutes after the temperature drop. Muffins go from perfect to dry in about three minutes.