Muffins are a great way to start the day. Imagine: it’s a new day, there’s no power. The kids are asking for breakfast and you’re SO happy to remember you have hot muffins in your Wonder Oven ready to pull out!
Why this method?
Yes, you can make these things without power using a sun oven. In fact, it would be my preferred choice, but unfortunately a sun oven isn’t always possible. Either the weather prohibits it, or it may be needed to cook something else. If you want to have a meal like this from your food storage then this method would be an important one to have as a backup. Besides that, how awesome would it be to pull out hot muffins for the family for breakfast after getting them started the night before?
Similar to the Wonder Oven bread, the results are always moist and delicious.
A Note About Muffin Recipes
Since there’s an abundance of muffin recipes I won’t be including a recipe — they’ll all work. One note however about turning regular muffin recipes shelf stable … simply exchange egg powder and powdered milk in place of fresh, oil in place of butter. These ingredients swap out without any problems or altering the taste of the recipe.
Acknowledgement
Many thanks to Linda H. who taught the basic idea of this to me! In the intro of this video, you can see the muffins she makes as well as her bread made in a Wonder Oven using repurposed food cans. (PS- I tried looking up the website she mentions, but it’s not working right now. If anyone knows anything more about her, I’d be interested to know what she’s been up to!)
Containers
I was originally taught to make muffins in a Wonder Oven using any small can (such as soup cans). Similar to my Wonder Oven bread, I went searching for a more permanent container and what I settled on were these sugar shaker cups from Sur La table (click here to see buying info). I’ve also found metal salt and pepper shakers which are similar, yet cheaper (I’m working on sourcing these so I can share them with those of you who might be interested). The reason I wanted a permanent container was (again) the rusting aspect of the repurposed cans: they just don’t last very long. Also, to have a lid is really nice because it shields the muffin batter from coming in contact with the tin foil covering.
- Ideally you would want a container similar to the one I found here but with a solid lid (the sugar shaker cup has a meshed wire lid) — I’ve not been able to find that. The salt and pepper shakers I’ve found have more of a solid lid, which is nice, but still there are holes in the lid making it necessary (still) to cover with foil.
- Finally, you’ll also need an appropriately sized pot to cook in. Remember, (in order to keep the cooking temperature hot) it’s important not to have a lot of dead air space. Whatever sized muffin containers you decide to use will determine the height of the pot you should try to use. Generally, a recipe of muffin batter requires 3-4 containers to hold the batter and usually a pot with the correct height will fit four containers (nice, huh?). If you end up with a smaller amount of batter for some reason, there’s no need to worry, you can fill up the extra container with water so it can hold the space in the pot and prohibit the other cans from tipping over while boiling.
The Process…
(Btw- this is also the process you’d use if you wanted to use repurposed cans without lids.)
Begin by greasing the muffin cups
Fill the cups 2/3 the way full with muffin batter. Any muffin recipe will work — I’m making blueberry muffins here.
and brownies
Place a circle of parchment paper on top of the batter to protect it from any foil contamination.
The next step is to cover with foil. I’ve taught for years to cover the foil with a couple of rubber bands to keep it secure. Well, it turns out, if you use heavy duty aluminum foil (or just make sure it’s really tight), you can also get away with manipulating the foil in such a way that it holds well all on it’s own.
Fill water in the pot until the cups are sitting in water about 2/3 their height.
Bring water to a boil, then boil for 10 minutes. Be sure to boil with the lid “on” so that the lid has a chance to get hot too.
Place in Wonder Oven for three hours minimum (or overnight if making for breakfast). Notice the increased cook time for these sweet type of breads and cakes. The everyday bread I posted has a two hour cook time (minimum).
The muffins are ready to go …
Go around the cup with a knife to help loosen if needed before bringing the muffin out.
And here’s what our little muffin bullet looks like. Slicing it will yield 3 muffin portions, so in using 4 muffin cups you’ll end up with 12 muffin slices like this.
Hot and moist muffins ready to eat!
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The brownies in my experience take much longer to make – 6 hours.
Remove the parchment paper circle and then use a knife to loosen the cake or brownie.
It’s so moist that it doesn’t come out all together, but that’s okay because I’ve got a spoon!
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I really enjoy making muffins in my Wonder Oven for how moist and good they are made this way! I know you’ll enjoy it too!