Wondering why your homemade blueberry muffins never look or taste as good as the ones you can buy from a bakery? You’re likely missing an integral step by failing to top them with a scattering of crunchy turbinado sugar. Used as a finishing agent on a variety of baked goods, this tawny-colored ingredient will transform a plain old muffin into a bakery-level treat in seconds with little legwork.
Turbinado sugar is made from pressed sugarcane juice that’s boiled down until it turns into crystals. To remove more moisture, these crystals are spun in a centrifuge (or turbine), which explains how this variety of sugar gets its unusual name. Known for its coarse texture, rich flavor, and golden color, turbinado sugar retains its crunch in the oven, unlike other sugars that melt completely. This feature makes it incredible for employing as a topping on homemade muffins to lend them a bakery-worthy aesthetic and aroma. However, aside from making muffins look good, the special sweetener creates a caramelized crust on the surface that gives them a distinctive character and rich toffee-like flavor. If you don’t have turbinado sugar, you can sub it for demerara, which has a slightly milder caramel taste because of its lower molasses content.
How to add turbinado sugar to muffins
There’s no special expert technique you need to master when adding turbinado sugar to your batch of muffins. Simply sprinkle a small amount over the top just before baking, and the heat from the oven will do the rest, causing the batter to dome up and the crystals of sugar to spread out and caramelize without losing all of their crunchy texture. When cooled, the surface of your baked goods will have a crackly quality that complements the softness of the muffin beneath. However, for even more texture, you could grease the inside of your muffin pans and press turbinado sugar over the surface before pouring in your batter (this is a trick Ina Garten uses to give her pound cakes a crunchy crust). Alternatively, to lend your muffins an Insta-worthy look and keep your muffin tin clean, consider making your own tall paper liners with parchment paper.
The difference between turbinado and other sugars is that it isn’t refined as much. This means it retains its natural molasses flavor and has a drier texture. These key features give it an edge over brown sugar, which is softer and therefore better for cookie batters that require more moisture. Another crunchy sugar that bakers adore for adding texture is pearl sugar. These compacted nuggets of white sugar (also known as hair sugar or nib sugar) don’t melt during baking either and are often sprinkled over pastries and cookies.