Dumb muffin question:

[Knicke]

I feel like I should be able to figure this out, but I'm kinda stumped.

I have this basic corn muffin recipe that calls for 3 eggs; the recipe makes 1 doz. corn muffins. I want to cut it in half - I'm basically cooking for one these days, and I have a neat little toaster oven that will bake a half-dozen of these muffins nicely. It would save me some fuel to be able to scale the recipe down, but I don't know whether I should put in 1 egg, 2 eggs, or beat the eggs together and put in half the volume of the beaten eggs.

It seems to me that muffins and quick breads can be pretty forgiving, and if there's no good answer I'll just forge ahead and try something - but have you run into this issue before? Is there a good rule of thumb for doing this?

[Pontormo]

A large egg, beaten normally fills about a quarter of a cup. Half that amount. Using the egg shell to scoop, instead of a spoon, eases the process.

Save what remains for another use. I just made meatballs for tapas a few days ago that required 1 T of egg. I saved what remained in a small empty jar. Had some leftover cooked rice, scallions, bell peppers... fried rice! Or half of a recipe for buttermilk pancakes. Mix with another egg for scrambled eggs...or make meatballs yourself!

[prasantrin]

Do you have a scale? One large egg is about 52 grams (without the shell), so 1 1/2 eggs would weight 78 grams. That's what I learned in my current cooking class.

In junior high school, we learned that 1 egg was about 3 tablespoons, so you could also use about 4 1/2 tablespoons.

[K8memphis]

Or another idea is to bake all of them and give half away. If you had a bigger oven that is. Just a muffin moment.

[Knicke]

Okay, thanks. What I'm hearing is I should use 1.5 eggs somehow, whether I measure by weight or volume. I do have a scale, so perhaps I'll try that (it's probably more accurate than my eyeballing...).

Pontormo, thanks for the ideas about what to do with the leftovers!

[Pontormo]

You're welcome! I forgot to recommend spaghetti carbonara as another thing to make with leftover fraction of a beaten egg.

As you said in your original post, it's kind of hard for things to go wrong when you make muffins, so unless you're doing something drastic with ratio of dry to wet or eliminating sources for levening, I am sure tweaking would be fine, too.

But here's the other thing. 3 eggs is a LOT for a dozen muffins, even when batter is made with meal and not just finer grains of flour. Most recipes call for 1-2 eggs. You could always look for a more convenient recipe online.

[Sarah Phillips]

Here's a question I answered from someone who asked the same question on my website! I have done it numerous times with great success! Plus, it's so easy! And, if you aren't exact (because it's hard to be because eggs are slippery), the recipe will still bake, especially muffin recipes. I have done this when baking butter cakes and they turn out just fine! (I create recipes and often cut them in half when I do testing. So, I use lots of half eggs!)

Q: If I cut a recipe in half and the original uses 1 large egg, how do I halve it?

A: One large egg equals about 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons). In order to get "half a large egg", you'll need 2 TABLESPOONS for your recipe. First, beat the egg so the yolk and white until well mixed and let the bubbles subside. Then, measure what you need with a measuring spoon.

Pontormo said the same, except I use a measuring spoon!

By the way, you can also use 2 eggs in half of your recipe, if desired and it will still work!

But, if you want to halve an egg, put the rest in scrambled eggs! Or cook it in the microwave and feed to dogs! Not to worry!

Edited September 9, 2006 by Sarah Phillips (log)

[tammylc]

If it were me, I wouldn't go to the trouble of trying to half an egg. Next time I wanted to make them, I'd try a batch with 2 eggs and see how that turned out. The time after that, I'm make them with 1, and see which ones I liked best. There's not a lot of risk here - the ingredients in cornbread aren't expensive, and that kind of change is not going to make them actually inedible, even if the texture turns out different from your usual.

[azlee]

Okay, thanks. What I'm hearing is I should use 1.5 eggs somehow, whether I measure by weight or volume. I do have a scale, so perhaps I'll try that (it's probably more accurate than my eyeballing...).

Pontormo, thanks for the ideas about what to do with the leftovers!

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if your recipe calls for three large eggs, one extra large egg should work in a half recipe. otherwise, i'd break two eggs and save the extra to add to an omelet or use as a binder in another recipe

[srhcb]

USDA Dried Egg Mix (NOT powdered eggs) work great in baking and make it easy to measure fractions.

SB

[Darcie B]

USDA Dried Egg Mix (NOT powdered eggs) work great in baking and make it easy to measure fractions.

SB 

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I'm confused - it sounds like the dried egg mix could be called powdered eggs - what is the difference?

[K8memphis]

Ok, that's it~~I can't resist any longer.

There's no such thing as a dumb muffin, just dumb questions.

or

A dumb muffin wouldn't be asking a question.

or

Muffin's big brother might say, "Step outside them's fighting words."

I mean, think about it, what would be the quintessential dumbest muffin question?

"Why is it so hot in here???"

"But does the light go out if you close the door?"

[miladyinsanity]

One wonders if it might not be easier to cut it down into thirds?

Because I bake for 1, and that's what I do. I cut down all recipes according to the number of eggs they have.

[cakewalk]

One more suggestion: make the whole recipe, fill the 6-muffin tray and bake, put the rest of the batter in a zip-lock freezer bag, and freeze it until you want to make the muffins again. All you'll have to do is defrost.

But I have to say: I have not yet done this with muffin recipes. However, I do it all the time now with cake recipes. It works wonderfully, and I don't see why it shouldn't work for muffins as well. I just baked a carrot cake last night that had been in the freezer about three weeks. (A commissary carrot cake, no less.) Looks beautiful, we'll eat it this afternoon and put it to the taste test. I currently have three other cake recipes in the freezer (honey cake, orange-walnut cake, chocolate buttermilk cake.) I think the muffins will work just as well.

[srhcb]

USDA Dried Egg Mix (NOT powdered eggs) work great in baking and make it easy to measure fractions.

SB 

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I'm confused - it sounds like the dried egg mix could be called powdered eggs - what is the difference?

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"USDA Dried Egg Mix is a blend of dried whole eggs, nonfat dry milk, soybean oil, and a small amount of salt. There is very little moisture in it. To reconstitute, blend 2 tablespoons of Dried Egg Mix with ¼ cup water to make the equivalent of one large whole egg."

Dried egg by and of itself doesn't reconstitute to anything resembling or reacting like normal eggs. The added ingredients somehow do the trick.

While I won't claim that scrambled Dried Egg Mix is as good as regular scrambled eggs, they do work great for baking, and are very convenient to store and use.

SB (I was surprised too! )