What could cause the same muffin recipe to come out dry sometimes and moist others?

[Anonymous]

I have a recipe for banana oat bran muffins (gluten/dairy free) that I've been making regularly for the past 6 months but lately it's been coming out much drier than before. The ingredients haven't changed, same oven, same baking temperature and time. I can actually tell a difference in the dough before I bake them. Sometimes it's more liquid-y and others the consistency is thick and almost pasty. This last time I added some extra almond milk at the end to help thin it out, but they're still a little dry. What the heck am I doing wrong??

[Anonymous]

Humidity. I use twice the amount of liquid in my pastry in the winter as in the summer.

[Anonymous]

Temperature (of air and ingredients) and relative humidity.

https://www.jacksonandsons.com/how-your-baked-goods-are-affected-by-indoor-climate/

[Anonymous]

Ripeness of the bananas

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Humidity. I use twice the amount of liquid in my pastry in the winter as in the summer.

Interesting! I never would have thought of that. Would you suggest just increasing the milk and vegetable oil? I'm assuming the number of eggs, for example, should remain the same?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ripeness of the bananas

Another vote for the ripeness of the bananas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ripeness of the bananas

Another vote for the ripeness of the bananas.

I'm assuming less ripe = more dry?

[Anonymous]

Could be bananas, but my first guess was humidity as well. True for any kind of bread (I bake challah for Friday nights year round and always use less flour in winter)

[Anonymous]

In addition to ripeness of the bananas and temperature/humidity, I’ll throw in size of the eggs (my large eggs from the same farm aren’t always the same size) and potential need for recalibrating oven temperature. Oven seems least likely given that you can see a difference in the dough, but could be part of the equation.

[Anonymous]

weigh your dry ingredients (vs measure by cup) actual amount changes based on how much they have settled.

[Anonymous]

Weigh your peeled bananas. The moisture content varies widely. There is a #grams bananas at which your recipe is perfect. If its not specified in the recipe you may need trial and error to figure it out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Humidity. I use twice the amount of liquid in my pastry in the winter as in the summer.

Interesting! I never would have thought of that. Would you suggest just increasing the milk and vegetable oil? I'm assuming the number of eggs, for example, should remain the same?

Humidity poster here. Yes, I would add a little more milk and/or a little less flour (and/or riper bananas). The key for me with bread and pastry (which I make year round and don’t really measure for) is knowing what the right texture of the dough feels like and tweaking the ingredients according to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ripeness of the bananas

Another vote for the ripeness of the bananas.

+1 Over ripe bananas have more moisture that green bananas.

[Anonymous]

Also size of eggs.