What bad things happen when someone stirs the batter too much?

It activates the glutens in the flour and makes everything heavy.

Ah, thanks! :D

Am I the only person who thought ‘stirs the batter’ was a euphemism for something?

@Ivan What exactly did you think it meant? I was thinking cookie batter myself.

By the way, that’s why you let bread dough “rest” after you knead it. Same deal. You should try it the recipe way – you might find that things taste the same, but are lighter and fluffier and flakier.

@Ivan – yeah, I thought the same. She didn’t specify, so I assumed. That made an ass+u+me. :P

You fine folks have caught me during the 3% of my chatter that ISN’T a euphemism for something. Heh.

If you stir too much they won’t be as light and moist.

Woah. i totally thought this was a really deep question before i clicked on it. Like, about totally overanalyzing things or something. ha!

What @pdworkin said.

If you want to learn more about that and other “kitchen science”, check out On Food and Cooking.

May start a bench clearing brawl..sorry I’m watching baseball playoffs while I fluther….

The gluten issue is one reason, but there’s another problem with overstirring:

The baking powder and/or baking soda used to leaven the batter begins releasing CO2 as soon as it becomes moist. The bubbles formed in the batter will later expand with the oven heat to aerate the muffins. Stirring the batter after the bubbles form both brings bubbles up to the surface where they’re freed from the batter and can no longer leaven the muffins, and causes smaller bubbles to join to form fewer and bigger bubbles. The result is less total CO2 , and a coarser, more honeycombed texture.

That makes sense too.

But how do you know when you’ve stirred enough? If there are dry lumps of flour (or mix powder), I feel like I need to stir more, because those are obviously not mixed in. And yet some recipes say to not worry about those, because it will all come out of the oven just fine. That part makes no sense to me.

Try it once.

I prefer to do the mix quickly with a whisk. The whisk is far more efficient at blending the wet and dry ingredients, so the mix is done before much CO2 is released.

I’ll never forget my first biscuit bricks. : )

When baking the lumps are moistened somehow and break up, unnoticeable in the finished product.

@laureth – It works. I promise!

@Harp – Are you sure you’re not Alton Brown in disguise? I know you’ve got tons of professional kitchen experience, it’s just that your explanations are so good. Plesae, tell me that you’re a teacher somewhere!

@avvooooooo – Stick to cookies.

@tedibear39 Thanks! I do teach chocolate-making at a culinary school.

@Harp – great, now I’m drooling AND I want to take a class with you.

@tedibear39 Did I hear cookies? I do ok with other baked goods now, but I was having too much fun kneading! Stirring I can stop doing, kneading is fun!

i must be a pessimist, because the first thing i thought was ‘apocalypse?!’
i didn’t know you could stir batter too much. i need to learn how to cook/bake.

if you stir the batter too much, it just gets this heavy, glutenous flavor. if you have a delicate palate, you would be able to taste the difference. for me, there is a HUGE difference in texture and taste

It also “kills” all the bubbles/air that you want in your foods…

but then…its from a box…who ever trusts stuff that comes from boxes anyways…

@smile1 – most of the things I bake are made from scratch – but it still says not to stir too much.

i meant, not the technique, but the food from boxes are that great tasting anyways, so it probably wont make a big difference in taste.

IT ACTIVATES THE GLUTEN IN THE FLOUR AND THEREFORE EVERYTHING BECOMES HEAVY-FOR BEST RESULTS…LIGHTLY COMBINE EVERYTHING AND AWAY YOU GO :)

Hope this helped you x