High Rising Muffins: The Banana Chocolate Version

SURPRISE... I made muffins again...

It seems that all I do is make cupcakes and muffins. I guess the muffin liners appeal to me. Less clean up.

I wanted to make some of those nice high rise muffins. You know, like the ones at Starbucks and Second Cup?

Maybe it's because I've been looking at some new housing situations. I'm really digging those high rise apartments.

Nice view. Who wouldn't want that?

Banana Chocolate Muffins

I found out that there are three things that may help to make a muffin to rise higher:

1. A super hot oven temperature. 
I'm talking like 400-425, maybe even 450 degrees F.

I baked my muffins for 8 min at 425F, then I dropped the temperature down to 350F for another 8 or so, until done.

2. A scoopable batter.
Yeah, I know scoopable isn't a word, but it's my blog. All I mean is that the batter shouldn't be runny or pourable.

It must be thick-ish. I used my normal Banana Muffin Recipe, but I added some coco powder (~1/2 cup) to thicken up the batter.

I've used this so many times... but I can't seem to remember if the batter actually needed the coco powder... I think it was borderline pourable and that is why I added it.

3. Fill the muffin pan almost to the top.
None of this 3/4 full business. Half or 2/3 fullness is for cupcakes and we are making muffins.

Overall, I think it turned out pretty well. In fact, I will probably do these three things every time I make muffins.

The only down side would be that it may take a little bit longer for the oven to preheat. Yeah, bummer.

I also found that I made fewer muffins... which wasn't a surprise since I filled them higher. Not a bad thing, but just something to keep in mind if you decide to do these three things... do it...