How A Pro Baker Gets Bakery-Style Domed Muffins

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Ever wish you could achieve a bakery-style high dome in your home-baked muffins? Lucky for you, we got to chat with Sally McKenney, the baker behind Sally's Baking Addiction and the New York Times best-selling author of "Sally's Baking 101," to pick her brain for her tips on making the absolute best muffins at home.

See, getting her muffins to dome and puff is one of McKenney's favorite baking wins. She even gets a little giddy and nerds out about it as she explains to us, "...it's so achievable at home with a few simple tweaks to the way you make and bake your muffins. Start with a thick batter. This is because a thicker batter (think scoop-able, not pourable) gives the muffins structure so they rise UP instead of spreading OUT." Keeping the batter thick means not over-mixing it and taking the time to chill it in the fridge. You may also want to add a little more flour to the batter if it's too runny. 

Aside from keeping your muffin batter thick, McKenney points out that how much batter you use matters. She adds, "...for domed muffins, fill [the liners] to the brim." Conversely, if you are making cupcakes, you need to leave room for frosting. There, McKenney advises only filling the liners about "⅔ full."

When you're ready to bake the muffins, McKenney suggests you preheat your oven to a higher temperature than you normally would. Why, you ask? Well, the fact is, for perfectly domed muffin tops, increase the oven's temperature. McKenney explains to us, "Begin baking your muffins at a higher temperature — my muffin recipes all start at 425 [degrees Fahrenheight] — then reduce it to 350 [degrees Fahrenheight] after 5 minutes. That initial blast of heat creates a quick burst of steam, which helps the muffins rise rapidly and form that tall dome. Once the tops are lifted, lowering the temperature ensures the centers bake through evenly, and the tops don't over-brown." 

McKenney has a final tip for us, and this one involves spacing the muffins out in the tin. She states, "Instead of filling every cavity in your muffin tin, try filling every other one. This allows more hot air to circulate around each muffin, encouraging them to rise upward rather than outward."

Now that you know how to make perfectly-domed muffins at home, check out our tried and true muffin recipes this week. You can't go wrong with our fluffy and moist chocolate chip muffins recipe or our cardamom blueberry muffins recipe.