Laziness/carbs cooking question

October 28, 2018 8:41 AM

Does it work to make muffins from pancake mix? I have Birch Benders protein pancake mix. What would happen if I made it in muffin tins?

These are the ingredients. They seem the same as muffins pretty much. I thought I'd add an egg and a little extra milk., and berries. Will it come out disgustingly dense or something?

Unbleached Wheat Flour, Whey Protein Concentrate (Whey Protein Concentrate, Lecithin), Evaporated Cane Juice, Vital Wheat Gluten, Leavening (Monocalcium Phosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Non-GMO Corn Starch), Eggs, Salt, Natural Flavor.

posted by nantucket to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

Best answer: As a general rule muffin and pancake batter are pretty close siblings; this is actually a specific topic in the Ratio book. I think you want to mix the batter like you're expecting thick pancakes (so less like eg crepe batter), and an egg would probably help with the structure. I'd mix up a smallish batch as a test but if I were you I'd feel pretty confident of it working out, just bake the same as any muffin recipe.
posted by range at 8:51 AM on October 28, 2018

What you're missing is basically fat - cakes have butter/margarine/oil in them, pancakes don't. So the texture/mouthfeel will be slightly different, but not to the extent that I'd say it would be a bad idea.
posted by Vortisaur at 9:07 AM on October 28, 2018

Best answer: Cooking pancake batter in muffin tins pretty much how you make Yorkshire pudding. You pre-heat some oil in the tin and cook it in a very hot oven.

But it’s an unleavened, unsweetened batter, so although it would be an interesting experiment to try it with your pancake mix, I have no idea how it would come out. Probably not very similar.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 9:24 AM on October 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

Do you have banana, applesauce, or canned pumpkin? Those are common add-ins that low-fat bakers tend to use in place of or as supplement to butter or oil.
posted by kapers at 9:35 AM on October 28, 2018

I might go with two eggs (per dozen muffins) and a tablespoon of additional fat. I would expect them to be fine - even if they're really dense they'll still be edible, but you should get decent loft from steam and fat.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:38 AM on October 28, 2018

What you're missing is basically fat - cakes have butter/margarine/oil in them, pancakes don't.

Sure they do. Every recipe I've ever used for pancakes uses butter (favorite uses 1/2 stick), and then there's the ever-popular buttermilk pancakes, where I'm guessing that milk that contains butter would also contain fat.
posted by LionIndex at 9:42 AM on October 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

Buttermilk does not contain butter. In fact, it is very low in fat, more like skim milk. Originally, it was the milk left over after the fat in milk was churned out and became butter. Now it’s usually fermented.

In my experience, pancake recipes use a lot less fat than muffin recipes.
posted by FencingGal at 10:20 AM on October 28, 2018 [4 favorites]

You can make a cake-like thing by putting pancake batter in a rice cooker. I've done it, and it was good.

pancake batter extrapolation:
pancakes = large, thin = good
pancake cake = large, thick = good
protein mix muffins = small, thick = very probably also good
posted by bunderful at 10:59 AM on October 28, 2018

Just add melted butter or vegetable oil or crisco in the appropriate ratio. Add some sugar if you want. I’ve def done it and I don’t measure! It will be fine!

You will get a denser product because your batter mix is basically high protein bread flour, but I still think it will be fine!
posted by jbenben at 1:48 PM on October 28, 2018

Best answer: Birch Benders actually has some recipes for muffins on their site: https://recipes.birchbenders.com

Looking at the muffin recipes, previous commenters were right about adding fat to the mix. I’m trying to finish my own bag of Birch Benders and I think those blueberry ones look promising!
posted by theappleonatree at 8:52 PM on October 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

Honey Wheat Germ Muffins
2 1/3 cup mix
½ c whiat germ
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp bakng soda
1 egg, beaten
1.2 cup honey
1 cup milk
½ cup raisins
Combine dry ingredients
Combine wet ingredients
Stir together
Add raisins or chocolate chips (optional)
Bake 400 F 15-18 min
posted by Enid Lareg at 8:14 AM on October 29, 2018

Response by poster: For anyone following up: I wound up using regular (not protein) pancake mix, added an extra egg and some canned pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg and a little brown sugar; in a separate bowl I also sweetened some cream cheese with powdered sugar, and made Starbucks-style pumpkin cream cheese mini-muffins that were much less sugary and oily than Starbucks. Family devoured. So, it works.
posted by nantucket at 8:48 AM on November 1, 2018