276921 Wed Mar 09 14:15:12 -0800 2005 11 31 Home Cooking 0 1462324 Hello all muffin bakers, Thanks to all the people who responded to my "Make me a muffin-- A Chowhound Challenge" thread. I am pleased to say I have received many good suggestions, and I'm ready to close entries (at least for the time being) and begin recipe and taste testing. The entries are: 1 Oatmeal Apple Nut Muffins -- LisaN 2 Cranberry Apple Muffins -- Smokey 3 Pumpkin Muffins - Caitlin McGrath 4 Cardamom-Apricot Muffins -muffy 5 Moist and Chocolatey Zucchini (Cake) Muffins -- FunwithFood 6 Golden Grand Marnier (Cake) Muffins from the Cake Bible - Muffin 7 Apple Bran Muffins -- Buttercup 8 Muffin mix plus orange juice and orange zest - Cyndy 9 Doughnut Muffins from Fine Cooking -- Melissa 10 Coconut Bananna Muffins -- krissywats Eliminated from competition (at my discretion -- sorry folks!): Pomegranate Ginger Muffins -- thank you, creepygirl, for the enry, but I can't get pomegranate seeds but a few months of the year, plus I don't really like sweet ginger things. This might be a fab muffin, but it's just not right for my everyday morning pastry Cranberry Buckwheat Muffins -- I've had a buckwheat muffin before (my sister is mad for them) and I seriously object to the texture, so I'm sorry, Rita, I won't be making these. Thanks very much for the entry Various Joy of cooking muffins -- kbl. Thanks, kbl, for the idea, but I've baked all of the JOC muffin recipes and none of them wowed me. Ok, now that we have the chosen few (wow -- a field of 10! I never thought I'd get more than 3-5!), I will start baking. This may take me several months, actually, to bake through all of them. I may make two recipes side by side and freeze them and alternate eating them, but probably never more than 2 at a time. With 12 muffins in each batch (except 6 for cardamom-apricot) and 10 recipes, by consumption rate of 1 per day, well, you do the math! It may be late summer before I'm through. But I, as a loyal Chowhounder, promise I will bake through all of these recipes. I've reviewed them and they all have ingredients that I can get readily (yes, I found sources for flaxmeal and pumpkin butter!) and that I think I would enjoy making and eating. The proud winner will be presented with a Cooking.com gift certificate from me, and I will discuss my results on this board, for any who are interested in this bake-off! I really appreciate all the entries. I look forward to some extraordinary muffin experiences in the near future! Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/276895#1461986 Wed Mar 09 14:15:12 -0800 2005 0 Mrs. Smith 1 1462327 Any chance that you'll have multiple reviewers - Mr. Smith, perhaps? I really need a few great muffin recipes, but from your description, I think our ideas about perfect muffins lie on the opposite ends of the muffin spectrum, as it were. I like a muffin that is distinctly not a cake, not too sweet, a little rougher in texture. Most commercial muffins disappoint me because they are so sweet and fine-textured they might as well have icing. My mother used to make cheese muffins when I was a kid, a savory muffin with shredded cheddar, and I miss those. (I also like delicate, cake-like-but-not-at-all-dry brownies, not the fudgey chewy type, so I'm clearly a freak.) Anyway, I would love to read full reviews of your muffin-baking adventures, maybe you can find some winners in different styles. Wed Mar 09 14:32:46 -0800 2005 1462324 0 curiousbaker 2 1462355 Interesting! I've always preferred cake-like muffins, because the rougher texture you're talking about I've always considered to be more scone-like. I love scones, too, but they are different than muffins, in my opinion. I haven't decided on a scoring rubric, as Carb Lover asks. I doubt Mr. Smith will taste all of the muffin varieties (for example, he abhors: cranberries, coconut, and bananas, which eliminates several entries already) but he may taste an orange or chocolate-zucchini one. His comments may be noted, but will not affect the main taster's overall judgement if they are in direct opposition (she wrote autocratically, since she will be the one eating the muffin every morning!). Baby Chowpup is now only 10 months old, and he does not get refined sugar or wheat flour in his diet yet, nor does he speak in any language which would be understood by the intelligent readers of this board.:) Any comments he offers me, of course, I will consider carefully. The dogs in my home like everything, including all muffins, and therefore I will not solicit their opinions! I may, if having made a batch of one of the competitors, and having extra, give some to visiting friends and relatives (especially if I think the muffins rock). The visitors' comments may also be noted -- but, again, they will not affect the overall judgement if they are directly contrary to my own taste. My criteria will be these (listed in order of importance). I may decide to affix a numerical value to these criteria, I may not. I'll decide when I actually begin baking and tasting: 1) Overall taste -- does it wow me? Is it full-flavored and yummy in a general way? 2) Texture -- moist and cakelike is usually a plus, but also any pleasing texture (to my palate) is considered viable. This is including a possibly rougher-textured, drier, scone-type texture, if the texture delivers the flavor in a good way. 3) Usability -- namely, can I either freeze it successfully, or make the batter (like the doughnut muffin recipe says you can) and bake a few off at a time. I'd like to make 12 muffins at a time, and eat them over the course of 12-14 days. The muffin recipe has to last and be good for that stretch of time in some fashion. One criteria which does not add or detract to overall scoring of the muffin is ease or difficulty of preparation. Since I'll only be making the muffins every other week or so (possibly more during the competition, but not on an ongoing basis) if they are a little more difficult and fussy (like a Rose Levy Berenbaum recipe, for example) that's fine. Ease of preparation is ALWAYS subordinate to flavor. I am not looking for quick-n-easy here. Other minor plusses would be: ease of obtaining good ingredients year round (example -- good apples are available to me, in Northern California, almost every month of the year), excellent aroma, and if they "crisp up" well in a toaster oven directly from the freezer. However, even if a muffin fails in each one of these categories, but has fantastic flavor and texture, it would still win. Pretty unscientific and arbitrary, I know, but it's my morning muffin after all :) I'm excited about this too -- can't wait to start tasting some of these muffin beauties. Wed Mar 09 16:56:44 -0800 2005 1462327 0 Mrs. Smith 3 1462374 Sigh. And I was already spending my gift certificate at Cooking.com. Curiousbaker, I share you preference for the less cake-like muffin, so I fear the recipe I have provided to Mrs. Smith (an cranberry apple number) will not win. (I had suspected that when I submitted it, I suppose, but it's a family favorite, so there's just a lot of love there.) Anyway, curiousbaker, you may want to give it a try (perhaps waiting until the final results are in?) to see if it floats your boat. Smokey Wed Mar 09 20:20:24 -0800 2005 1462355 0 Smokey 2 1462486 I'm with you on prefering muffins with texture and that are not sweet but savoury. The other type I feel are just cupcakes without frosting. Thu Mar 10 16:58:42 -0800 2005 1462327 0 Candy 3 1462503 Whereas I think the best muffins have a cakey texture inside with a truly crisp exterior (or at least top), whereas a cupcake should be cakey throughout. Thu Mar 10 18:30:30 -0800 2005 1462486 0 Caitlin wheeler 4 1462548 Agreed! Thank you for putting it into words -- that's what I've always liked in muffins. A good, crunchy exterior with a cakey interior is ideal to me. However, I'm open minded during the muffin challenge. If a muffin has a different texture and is just plain yummy, it can still win. Next week I'll be out of my present muffins and will start the challenge! I will report as I bake and eat, so watch this space... Thu Mar 10 23:50:34 -0800 2005 1462503 0 Mrs. Smith 1 1462329 Bake on! What a wonderful interactive use of this board! Look forward to your results unfolding. Do you have a scoring rubric? Nothing too complicated, but that would be helpful IMO. Wed Mar 09 14:39:33 -0800 2005 1462324 0 Carb Lover 1 1462378 cool, i can't wait for the results. will you post as you go along, and let us know if you come across a particularly good one? Wed Mar 09 21:26:58 -0800 2005 1462324 0 LKB 1 1462383 My goodness, I had no idea this was such a formal competition. I would have worn something nicer and had my hair done! This is exciting. I look forward to reading about your baking and trying some of these myself! What a great idea. Wed Mar 09 21:51:43 -0800 2005 1462324 0 Buttercup 1 1462386 ::::rushes in and taps on the microphone:::: Careful not to split the coconut banana muffins batter into 12, but rather the recipe is for 8. Thank you. ::::rushes out to chew nails and practice her acceptance speech::::: Wed Mar 09 22:20:24 -0800 2005 1462324 0 krissywats 2 1462424 Ha, krissywats! You'll need a manicure for those nails long before you get a chance to pull out that acceptance speech!! I tell you, the competition is mine! Smokey Thu Mar 10 09:39:17 -0800 2005 1462386 0 Smokey