Why You Should Use An Ice Cream Scoop When Making Muffins

Muffins that are seriously delicious can make or break your morning coffee or tea. Their cake-like goodness makes them the perfect amount of sweet or sometimes savory to satisfy those morning cravings, but they still qualify as breakfast. Muffins are also easy to whip up for those school functions and bake sales for the kiddos. Whether you are a fan of the classic blueberry muffin or live on the edge and prefer an amazing savory muffin like a bacon-cheddar or pizza muffin, muffins are great on-the-go meals.

What makes a muffin a muffin, though? Food52 explains that the difference between a muffin and its cousin, the cupcake, is really a fine line. In fact, aside from the fact that cakes and cupcakes need to be flat — and muffin tops that spill over like a domed mushroom are not only acceptable but desirable — the only truly distinguishing feature between the two is when it is considered socially acceptable to eat them. Point, set, and match for the muffin because it is truly an anytime food. But if you have plans to break out the muffin tins, liners, and bowls to make your favorite muffin recipe, Taste of Home suggests you may want to use a kitchen tool that's traditionally used for another sweet treat: the ice cream scoop. Here's why.

According to Taste of Home, using an ice cream scoop to scoop out your batter and place it into your muffin tin is a game-changer. The cooking site explains that an ice cream scooper makes for a cleaner cooking experience, and you are able to better manage the amount you are putting into the tin. Per the Kitchen Conservatory, using an ice cream scooper when you make your muffins ensures you are putting the exact same amount of batter in each muffin cup. This in turn allows your muffins to bake evenly. It is a win-win. Not surprisingly, this method of distributing your batter also works for cupcakes.

But of all the reasons to use the ice cream scooper for your muffin batter, Fine Cooking offers one of the most relevant for busy bakers: It saves time. If you have less clean-up and aren't having to eyeball the muffin tin to make sure they all have the same amount of batter, you will have more time to eat the finished product. And, we don't know about you, but that's definitely our end goal. Plus, matters get even quicker when utilizing the scoops that have inside of their domes a retractable wiper that easily dispenses the batter from the scoop. Now, you can scoop batter into a full muffin tin in a mere minute or two.