when u should b careful not to overwork flour when mixing

Question

i baked a lot this past year and never had an issue w dryness. i'm making stephanie jaworski's blueberry streusel muffin this week and she does advise that u not overmix the dry ingredients. i've made several different kinds of muffins recently and some of them didn't even instruct me to fold gently. several said i could just use a whisk.

so i would like to know when i need to b gentle w flour in order to avoid hardness or dryness. I try to incorporate flour as efficiently as i can w/o leaving any pockets of flour. w muffins btw, i've noticed that it doesn't make a difference if i add the dry to the wet or vice versa. Tx

drbabs · Answer

In general, you don’t want to overmix muffin batter once you’ve added flour because you want to avoid forming too much gluten. Gluten is the protein that gives bread its structure and chewiness. Muffins become dense and tough if too much gluten is formed.  Here’s some more information about mixing muffin batter that might help. https://moviecultists.com/when-muffins-are-over-mixed

when u should b careful not to overwork flour when mixing

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