Question: Can you make tea bread/muffin batter night before?

[sasha1]

I'm wondering this, because there is never enough time in the morning to mix batter and bake, even on weekends, because my small kids are up early and hungry. I could get up earlier with an alarm but....

I haven't done it, because I'm afraid that something will go wrong. Like the leavening agent won't last, or the flour will absorb too much moisture... Although I've done a number of Suzanne Goin recipes and she loves for things to rest for awhile, batters included.

So far, my solution has been to bake in the evening, and we mostly eat the day old stuff for breakfast.

[nofunlatte]

Another thought--if you like scones, you can make the scones and freeze them before baking. Pop them into the oven frozen (you'd probably need to allot a couple of extra minutes baking time, though) for a warm morning treat.

[geminigirl]

yes, I discovered this trick last winter and I love it, it works great!

[jvanderh]

I'm not familiar with tea bread, but I've refrigerated cookie dough and muffin batter with both baking powder and baking soda and not had a problem.

[geminigirl]

you can always freeze the batter in muffin tins / liners and then you always have some to bake up fresh in the morning, they probably only require an extra few minutes in the oven...

[nofunlatte]

A gazillion years ago (okay, maybe the 1970s or 1980s), there was a minor "6-week muffin" fad, in which you made a batter that could be kept in the fridge for up to 6 weeks (apparently with wet and dry ingredients already mixed together). You could tart up the basic muffin with your own add-ins, I think. I've never made them (nor have I any inclination to make them now), but if time truly is of the essence, you can probably google some recipes for 6 week muffins.

[karykat]

I remember those refrigerator bran muffins. I did a quick search. The recipes I found do use only baking soda not baking powder.

As chowser noted.

[karykat]

Here's a link to one of the recipes:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,194,1...

[greygarious]

It was either in the Cake Doctor's boon or on the sporadic cake decorating show on PBS Create that it was mentioned that the batter for muffins could be made the night before. In both instances, the recipes use boxed cake mixes, which include stabilizers and other potions to make the batters foolproof, so I would not extrapolate this to scratch recipes.

Easy solution: bake something for the next morning as usual, but also mix up an identical overnight batter and bake it in the morning. If it fails, you'll have a back-up. If it works, you'll have the previous night's effort as a side-by-side comparison. If you do this, please report back on your conclusions.

[chowser]

If it uses baking powder, you'll want to bake right away. If it only uses baking soda as a leavener, it would work. As sweetTooth said, it's best to keep them separate. This article might be helpful and it includes recipes that can rest overnight.

http://www.finecooking.com/articles/h...

[sweetTooth]

I sometimes mix wet and dries ahead of time and then just combine the two just before baking. This works for pancakes, muffins and banana bread type of batters.

[visciole]

I agree with this. I don't think mixing the entire batter ahead of time will work out very well for a tea bread. However, having the dry ingredients all ready in one bowl, and the wet ingredients in another, you could just take them out and mix them together and pop them in the oven. I often do this.

[rainey]

That's what I do too.