Freezing Muffins
Last updated: Monday March 01, 2021
You can freeze fruit muffins and enjoy them for several weeks from the freezer. The trick is to freeze them right away (right after breakfast).
Place one or two muffins in small Ziplock bags, or lay several flat in a larger ziplock as if they were on a baking sheet. Keep them from touching each other as much as possible and lay them on a flat surface in the freezer for a couple of hours.
A chest or Upright Freezer generally works best since they often can be programmed to cool at zero (0) degrees or below. Once frozen the muffins should not stick to each other, and no longer need to remain flat in the freezer.
Freezing fruit muffins immediately ensures that the water in the fruit (blueberries) freezes in place and does not leach out into the muffins. When reheated, the fruit will retain its juiciness. To reheat, place these frozen gems in a convection oven heated to 300 degrees and bake for 15 minutes. Using a conventional oven will take a few minutes longer to reheat. They will taste like freshly baked muffins!
Muffins and most baked goods do not refrigerate well, as refrigerator temperatures cause staling of the bread structure, causing the flavor to degrade. It is far better to leave muffins out at room temperature than placing them in the refrigerator. They will eventually go stale, yet at a much slower rate than the rate within a refrigerator.
Here is a tip. To reduce staling when freezing, it is important that muffins pass through the 27-29 F degree temperature window quickly, and then to quickly reach a temperature of zero degrees or colder. -10 degrees in a stand-alone freezer is ideal. You can later bring several muffins up to the kitchen freezer a day or two prior to reheating them.
In addition, if muffins include berries, the water in them starts to migrate out into the muffin crumb causing it to become sticky, and the berries lose some of their flavor. Therefore, try to freeze muffins as soon as they reach room temperature.
Theo Black