Immersion blender vs. whisk

 

Over the past several days I've been doing a bit testing and experimenting.  I tend to accumulate ideas.  I think of something, a tweak to a recipe's ingredient proportions, an adjustment to a cooking time, and change in the mixing process, etc., etc., etc.  I write all these down and eventually I get around to trying them out.

One of the recent tests was with my lemon poppy seed muffins.  I decided to try out two different ways to mix the batter: 1, with an immersion blender; 2, with a stand mixer and whisk attachment.  So I set up two separate batches.  Each was measured with the exact same ingredient portions, down to the gram.  They were baked in identical pans, at the same time, side by side in the oven.  Everything was as equal as I could possibly make it.

When I mixed the batters, right away it was easy to see that there was a difference in the two.  The one mixed with the whisk was certainly a little airier (is that a word?).  And the one mixed with the immersion blender was much more luiquidy (I don't think that's a word).  That immersion blender gave supreme mixing which resulted in a very very silky smooth batter, but no air was beaten into it, of course.  The whisk beat not a lot of air, but some air, into the batter.  And the mixture itself was not nearly as silky smooth.

When I weighed the amount of batter for each muffin (again, this was identical for every muffin in the two pans), it was easy to see that the whisked batter was sitting higher in the muffin cups, even after I smoothed out the batter with the back of spoon.  It wasn't a lot higher, but it was noticeable.  As they baked, the whisked batter was baking a little higher.  The batter mixed with the immersion blender baked almost up to the rim of the muffin cups, but certainly didn't rise above.  

As you can see in the picture at the top of this post, one of these is lighter and one is darker.  The lighter one on the left was done with an immersion blender.  The one on the right is darker and a little bit bigger.  They both taste great and have a wonderful texture, but they aren't exactly the same.  

A lot of people will ask about ingredients and certainly one has to have good ingredients to make good food.  But technique is often just as important.  And this experiment shows how something very simple can be done a little differently and give a result that is easy to see.