The great blueberry muffin

This is what I was up to yesterday.

I made five very different blueberry muffin recipes to see which we liked best.  When you look at a recipe it can be hard to absorb the methods and piece together the final outcome.  So instead of 5 different recipes over a week or two I made a quarter of each recipe on one day.  It was very important, I found, that I made them together to really see how certain ingredients and techniques can completely change a dish.

We didn't find out favourite this time, but we found out what we liked.  Now I just need to combine a few elements and hopefully make our perfect muffin.

Let me explain; Muffin #1 was from Serious Eats.  We thought this muffin looked like one of the nicest with their pretty dome tops, but it was flavoured only by the bran that was added at the end, and bran can stay out of our indulgent muffins.  It was dry and didn't have enough blueberries.

Muffin #2 was a buttermilk oatmeal recipe I've made 3 or 4 times now, usually with chocolate chips.  In this recipe we really liked the vanilla, which brought up the comfort factor, the soft texture and the sweetness.  It's worthwhile to note that this recipe was made with a light touch, the muffin method of just incorporating the ingredients, not over mixing.  The muffin method also means that the "fat" ingredients are liquid and so the batter is very wet.  This all leads to your traditional muffin texture, a moist sweet slightly coarser crumb.  We really liked this recipe and the oats were awesome!

Muffin #3 was a smitten kitchen recipe I do believe I've used before.  This muffin used the creaming method, where the fat (butter) is still solid and creamed with the sugars.  This produces a lot finer crumb and a texture more like a cupcake.  These muffins however, we felt were dry.  Again they looked nice, the berry levels were good and we really liked the brightened flavour the lemon added.

Muffin #4 was from my Modern Baker cookbook.  #4 had an awesome crumb topping we both loved, and the cinnamon in the topping and the nutmeg in the cake were both very good.  But we thought those two spiced weren't welcome year round, they are probably better suited for fall-winter, to put a warm spin on things.  This recipe had a very fine crumb, it was a definite dessert muffin, not one to eat for breakfast.  And though the interior was dense and fine, the outside was crisp and crunchy.  Delicious.  Our biggest complaint here; the muffin was to sweet.

Muffin #5 was from The Good Food At Home cookbook (in my Best of the Best volume 10).  We found this muffin to be very disappointing.  The crumb topping was dry and didn't stick very well.  The flavour was lack luster and the blueberry levels unacceptable.  It is interesting to note that the crumb toppings in #4 and #5 have the same ingredients, brown sugar, flour and butter.  In #4 the butter is melted and the sugar added to it, then the liquid moistens the flour and it is quite wet.  In #5 the butter is only softened and then mixed with the sugar and flour, a drier crumb but also far less appealing.

In the end this is what we came up with; try #2 with #4's topping (without the cinnamon), add a little lemon zest and cut down on the sweetness.  I think we'll end up cutting down on the oat level too.  I'll post a recipe when we find a great one.  Email me if you'd like a recipe for any of the above.

Crunchy-Top Pear and Apricot Muffin

Wow, I am really not doing to hot on the photography front.  I guess I feel stuck, bored by the lighting and props that I've got.  When I do put some effort into it I often feel it doesn't come out all that much greater.  So here are some crappy photographs to explain my awesome food.

It's getting down to crunch time, as I've expressed countless times and clearing out the cupboards takes some definite thought.  Some things are easy, the pasta, quinoa, rice, easy as pie, but others, mango chutney, soda crackers and pomegranate syrup all involve a lot more thought.

Here is an example of easy, from the pantry number who-knows-how-many, they are crunchy-top pear muffins.  I had one pear ready to expire, a few leftover dried apricots and a handful of cashews, a muffin.

Crunchy-Top Pear and Apricot Muffin

I have to stay that using cashews in the crumb topping is not ideal.  Better suited would be walnuts or pecans, but those were not in my pantry.

Ingredients

185g all purpose flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

100g rolled oats

100g brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup plain yogurt

1/2 c canola oil

1 pear, peeled and diced

1/3 c dried apricots, small dice

Topping

50 g brown sugar

1/3 c chopped nuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Line a 12 cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.  

Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a medium sized bowl.  Add the oats and brown sugar, stir together.  Whisk together the eggs, yogurt and canola oil until well beaten.  Pour into dry mixture and carefully mix to combine.  Fold the pear and apricots in, being careful not to over mix.  Evenly distribute the batter between the cups.

To make the crumble, mix the nuts and brown sugar together.  Gently press a little of the mixture onto the top of each muffin.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until they are golden.  

Double Chocolate Muffins

I had a strange hankering for a muffin last night.  A double chocolate muffin to be exact. Strange for one main reason, I don’t like muffins.  They’re usually way too dry or much too moist, and often lame in flavour.  Thank goodness this recipe worked out perfectly.  I had three chocolate muffin recipes open when my sister came over.  We deliberated and decided that this recipe sounded best.  We were right!  Wonderfully chocolaty, perfectly moist and a good size too, not one of those mini, no-rise muffins that usually plague my muffin making.  This recipe is a keeper.  Now if only my oven would stop burning everything!

Double Chocolate Muffins

adapted from here.

On a side note, if I hadn’t been so fiercely craving a plain old chocolate chunk muffin I definitely would have added dried cherries or cranberries at the very least.  A half cup or so would probably suffice.

125 g (1/2 c) butter

210 g (1 3/4 c) flour

50 g (1/2 c +2 T) cocoa powder

250 g (1 1/4 c) brown sugar

1 1/4 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

2 eggs

1 c whole milk

1 1/2 t vanilla

2 t white vinegar

1 c chocolate chopped into chunks

Preheat oven to 425 F and line 12 muffin tins with liners.  Melt butter in microwave and set aside to cool until needed.  Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl, smashing clumps of brown sugar with a whisk.  

Combine wet ingredients in a medium sized bowl including butter, adding vinegar last.  Stir quickly into dry mixture, mixing with a wooden spoon until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chunks last.  Using a large scoop evenly distribute the batter into liners.  They will be very full.  Bake for 17-22 minutes until the tops are not shiny and a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in pan for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack.  

Sourdough Muffins

Those muffins there were really only baked out of guilt.  You see I’ve had this starter I’ve been maintaining for 6 weeks, that I’ve only used three times.  I feed it everyday and constantly worry it’s not going to survive but hardly use it!  What a waste I thought.  Since we aren’t really the pancake kind and I have a beautiful loaf of bread in the freezer I thought I’d try muffins.  I took a loose recipe and made it work.  Only...I’d say it’s definitely a savory muffin.  The sourdough really makes it, well, cheesy.  I suppose it might have done better with a lot more sugar and maybe some sweeter berries, but it would go well with jalapenos and cheddar or thyme and rosemary.  I’ll give it another go yet.   But heres your template.

Sourdough muffins:

3/4 c ap flour

1/2 t baking soda

2 t salt

2 T sugar

3 T melted butter

1 egg

1 1/2 c sourdough starter

2 T yogurt or buttermilk

your add ins

Start by preheating the oven to 350 and greasing a muffin pan.

Mix the flour, baking soda, sugar and salt in a medium bowl.  Add remaining ingredients and mix briefly.  Spoon evenly into pan.  Bake 20 or so minutes.