I suck.
I complain about muffin flavors pretty much every time my boyfriend and I visit a coffee shop. You visit a coffee shop or bakery, you want a muffin for breakfast, and you are always presented with the same boring flavors:
Apple Cinnamon (my least favorite)
Blueberry (works in a pinch, but it's not inspired)
Chocolate (who are we kidding, it's a cupcake)
Banana Nut
Bran
Lemon Poppyseed (occasionaly makes an appearance)
Carrot (occasionaly makes an appearance)
Where are the interesting flavor combinations? Where are the coconut and pineapple muffins (the best muffin I ever had in my life was in the Kansas City airport; light as a feather, bits of pineapple, coconut, and I think mac nuts -- it was ethereal), the apricot chutney muffins? The curried cranberry and pecan muffins? The Cherry Vanilla? It's so easy to use some flavor imagination, and yet no breakfast joints break out of that muffin rut. They can dumb down to popular choice. Fooey on popular choice.
I recently purchased a couple of muffin cookbooks from a thrift store (because with more than 100 cookbooks, I didn't have nearly enough, and I'm positive not a single one of those 100+ cookbooks had any muffin recipes in them so I needed these new books), and set about finding some interesting flavors. They were to be had, for sure.
So what did I do? What mold did I shatter with my gourmet muffin madness?
I made Lemon Blueberry, because I had blueberries on hand, and some meyer lemons.
As I said ... I suck.
LOW FAT LEMON BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
1 - 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 - 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup low fat milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon lemon extract or 2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup blueberries
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/4 cup of Meyer Lemon Simple Syrup (optional)
Combine first four dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and make a well. In a seperate bowl, beat wet ingredients (except blueberries) until thoroughly blended, and pour into the well in the flour mixture. Mix very gently until moistened. Toss blueberries with 2 tablespoons of sugar, and add to batter. Sprinkle with lemon zest, and mix very gently to incorporate the berries. I spooned the batter into paper lined mini muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees F for 14 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.
Optional step: When the muffins were fresh and hot, I brushed them with Meyer Lemon Simple Syrup to glaze the tops.
Verdict: Tasty, but not very interesting. The muffins stuck to the paper -- I think next time I'd spoon them into a greased tin. Also, next time I'll break out some peaches and ginger and go for broke with new flavors.
Skill: None.
Repeat: Who am I kidding? Probably yes. Blueberry is the boyfriend's favorite and he's a) younger and b) cuter than I am, so I am a slave to his every whim.
I complain about muffin flavors pretty much every time my boyfriend and I visit a coffee shop. You visit a coffee shop or bakery, you want a muffin for breakfast, and you are always presented with the same boring flavors:
Apple Cinnamon (my least favorite)
Blueberry (works in a pinch, but it's not inspired)
Chocolate (who are we kidding, it's a cupcake)
Banana Nut
Bran
Lemon Poppyseed (occasionaly makes an appearance)
Carrot (occasionaly makes an appearance)
Where are the interesting flavor combinations? Where are the coconut and pineapple muffins (the best muffin I ever had in my life was in the Kansas City airport; light as a feather, bits of pineapple, coconut, and I think mac nuts -- it was ethereal), the apricot chutney muffins? The curried cranberry and pecan muffins? The Cherry Vanilla? It's so easy to use some flavor imagination, and yet no breakfast joints break out of that muffin rut. They can dumb down to popular choice. Fooey on popular choice.
I recently purchased a couple of muffin cookbooks from a thrift store (because with more than 100 cookbooks, I didn't have nearly enough, and I'm positive not a single one of those 100+ cookbooks had any muffin recipes in them so I needed these new books), and set about finding some interesting flavors. They were to be had, for sure.
So what did I do? What mold did I shatter with my gourmet muffin madness?
I made Lemon Blueberry, because I had blueberries on hand, and some meyer lemons.
As I said ... I suck.
LOW FAT LEMON BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
1 - 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 - 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup low fat milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon lemon extract or 2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup blueberries
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/4 cup of Meyer Lemon Simple Syrup (optional)
Combine first four dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and make a well. In a seperate bowl, beat wet ingredients (except blueberries) until thoroughly blended, and pour into the well in the flour mixture. Mix very gently until moistened. Toss blueberries with 2 tablespoons of sugar, and add to batter. Sprinkle with lemon zest, and mix very gently to incorporate the berries. I spooned the batter into paper lined mini muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees F for 14 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.
Optional step: When the muffins were fresh and hot, I brushed them with Meyer Lemon Simple Syrup to glaze the tops.
Verdict: Tasty, but not very interesting. The muffins stuck to the paper -- I think next time I'd spoon them into a greased tin. Also, next time I'll break out some peaches and ginger and go for broke with new flavors.
Skill: None.
Repeat: Who am I kidding? Probably yes. Blueberry is the boyfriend's favorite and he's a) younger and b) cuter than I am, so I am a slave to his every whim.
Good luck on your quest for interesting muffins. I agree with your rant. Chocolate chocolate chip? Gimmie a break!
ReplyDeleteFound this after following the link from your flickrstream.
ReplyDeleteI've just borrowed a muffin cookbook from the lady I meet at the bus stop after work each day. It's got some really cool flavour mixtures in it and I'm going to have to work through them. The book is from New Zealand, the lady who lent it to me is from the Philipines and we live in England. Worldwide muffins anyone?
hahaha
ReplyDeleteyou just make me laugh
you rock
the best muffin flavor I ever had was oatmeal rum
yeah that's right ... an oatmeal muffin with rum soaked raisens and rum glaze on top
but like you said, who am I kidding, it was probably just cake but i couldn't believe my eyes when i saw a more interesting flavor in the bakery case!