At last, my muffin presentation

This post is long overdue since I announced it last May. But I was unable to find in Montreal the right baking tools until now. I phoned and visited many specialty stores without success so far. I almost gave up but I wanted it so bad that I have all the facts.

What is so special about my way of serving muffins?

To be truthful, the design originated at MBCo. Montreal Bread Company is a hip little bakery franchise concept with three locations in Montreal. MBCo makes tall straight and narrow column muffins, reaching 3 inches in height.

You get a 2-inch diameter muffin with no angle and without its typical cap. A lot more stylish look especially if you take the time to tie raffia ribbon around the muffin. The parchment paper is put before you cook the muffins.

If you have several flavors, identify them with colored raffia instead of the natural one. Here, I use an orange raffia ribbon to identify a carrot muffin.

For a brunch, lay out the muffin on a cake pedestal. Yesterday, Toast and Tables posted a nice compilation of cake stands. Setting the cake stands in a tier way is more spectacular.

Tricks of the trade for baking these muffins

My mistake was to think that you need a round ring of at least 3 inch height to make this muffin. No, it works with a ring of about 2 inches in height and diameter. You use your usual muffin recipe that you prepare at night.

Butter the inside of the round rings, insert a 3 x 9 inches parchment paper sheet, place them in a sheet pan and fill up to 3/4 with the muffin batter. Let them rest for the night; cook your muffins in the morning. The muffins will extend more due to the resting period.

The guy at MCBO told me they used wax paper on my muffin yesterday. I prefer parchment paper because wax paper is flammable. I also think that parchment paper look nicer after the cooking. You can see the better results on the top right picture versus the bottom one. But if you stay close by the stove, you are probably fine with wax paper.

If you are looking for 2 inch diameter, 3 inch height round rings for cooking, I found the online store of Pastry Chef Central. Located in Florida, they deliver in the States and in Canada. They sell professional grade baker tools so they are more expensive ($56 USD for a set of 6 forms) but I think they worth it. The ones I found are made in France.

I still think that the round ring of 3 inch in height will make a more uniform straight muffin. But in the meantime, I will give the lower round rings available here a few trial runs.

Sourcing:
Buy online: Single serving tall round rings at Pastry Chef Central store
Learn more: Web site of Montreal Bread Company (MBCo)
Learn more: Cake stands are stacking up as a top registry item published on Toasts and Tables blog