My muffin recipe is missing the qty of flour. Can you figure it out?
April 13, 2019 9:34 AM   Subscribe

I found my mom's beloved Zucchini Muffin recipe, but it's missing the quantity of flour and has a questionable amount of sugar. Can any bakers reverse-engineer this basic recipe, and check if the amount of sugar sounds correct?

As you can see, the hole punched through the number of cups of flour needed (recipe).

I did try looking up similar recipes but I noticed most only call for ~3/4 cups of sugar so 3 cups sounds really wrong, especially since the muffins were just the usual sweetness you'd expect for this kind of muffins.

If we figure it out you should definitely make them!
posted by Room 641-A to Food & Drink (11 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
My similar recipe calls for 3 cups flour.
posted by jeather at 9:47 AM on April 13, 2019 [1 favorite]


With that amount of oil and zucchini, plus the 4 eggs and 2.5 tsp of leavener (split between baking powder and soda), you are looking at at least 4 cups of flour, if not 5, and that would make that amount of sugar correct. This probably makes at least 3 loaves, if not 4, yes?
posted by devinemissk at 9:48 AM on April 13, 2019 [1 favorite]


Any chance this is a recipe for a LOTTA muffins? 3 c zucchini sounds like a lot.
posted by kapers at 9:48 AM on April 13, 2019 [1 favorite]


That is a large quantity recipe. With 1.5 c of oil, 4 eggs, 3 c sugar, and 1 T of allspice, it seems to be at least 2 times a regular muffin recipe. Therefore, 5 cups of flour and 2 tsp cinnamon seems reasonable.
posted by fourpotatoes at 9:49 AM on April 13, 2019 [1 favorite]


Oh I see this is muffins - this probably makes a LOT of muffins.
posted by devinemissk at 9:49 AM on April 13, 2019 [2 favorites]


If we’re all correct about quantity of muffins, I’d do 4 c flour to start, see how it looks, and add another 1-2 based on how it’s looking. I think the sugar is correct.

I want one.
posted by kapers at 9:52 AM on April 13, 2019 [5 favorites]


FWIW jeather's recipe calls for 2 cups zucchini and 2 cups sugar and 3 cups flour.

So scaling that up to your recipe (3 cups zucchini and 3 cups sugar) gives 4.5 cups flour.

In short, all the answers so far are generally in agreement.

(Don't know anything personally about zucchini muffins except how to eat them . . . )
posted by flug at 10:46 AM on April 13, 2019 [1 favorite]


Going with everyone else: The leavening ratios I learned (Shirley Corriher, Bakewise) for 1 cup of flour would be 1/4 tsp baking soda, or 1 to 1 1/4 tsp baking powder, coming out to 5 to 5 1/2 cups flour. And that seems right for the other ingredients. Do tell us how they come out!
posted by JawnBigboote at 12:54 PM on April 13, 2019 [2 favorites]


I am far from an "expert baker," but I do know something about experimentation. Since this is the King Giant Muffin Recipe (per the expert baker commenters), you do have an opportunity to try quartering it and experimenting with the amount of flour, if you're really curious.

Two other probably-worthless comments: it does look as though the amount of flour was a whole number (no fraction) and is it possible that if you flattened out the paper you'd see enough of the original number to tell what it was?

Good luck: a family recipe is worth some failures to recover!
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 3:57 PM on April 13, 2019 [2 favorites]


It appears to be a whole number so it's either 4 or 5 cups flour; I lean towards 5; as 3 cups sugar is really high for 4 cups flour. Honestly it will be fine with 5, and if they are less sweet than you remember then you can do 4 the next time.
posted by fingersandtoes at 9:32 PM on April 13, 2019 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Thank you, everyone!

I kind of remember freezers full of muffins during zucchini season, so it is probably a huge batch. I’m going to try to make half a batch, starting with 2 cups of flour and seeing how much extra it takes.

I made a point of making sure I had the recipe but I didn’t check to see if mom punched holes in it; she must have know that recipe by heart. I’ll make them next week and update!

It’s such a basic recipe, but it’s so good. My mom used to make them for a friend because they were —literally— the only vegetable he would eat.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:56 AM on April 14, 2019 [1 favorite]


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