Eat: America's Test Kitchen Blueberry & Lemon Muffins

 I was feeling inspired to make blueberry muffins after seeing all the fresh fruit at the Jean-Talon market a couple weeks back. I've made muffins from scratch a handful of times, but I use to tweak all my baked goods recipes to make them whole wheat and/or low fat, which often left me with heavy, dry results. This time I decided to reviewed a few recipes for something flavourful and not overly healthy (I'm working on this whole enjoy my food but eat less concept!). At first I considered a Barefoot Contessa recipe but it seemed so high in fat that I opted for a recipe that I found in an America's Test Kitchen cookbook instead. It was during my grocery run for ingredients where I made the most crucial mistake. The recipe called for low fat yogurt, which I selected but I decided to get all creative with it and get a Greek-style version. I figured I liked the taste and texture better than the regular, so how could it not be a better muffin? (This is what we call: foreshadowing)

  

When it came time to make the muffins I assembled all the ingredients and to my dismay, the mixture looked very, very dry. I could barely get my spatula through the mix. Then it dawned on me...the thick Greek style yogurt has a lot less moisture. I kept adding more yogurt until the container was empty. The mix was still too thick and now I had definitely over mixed it. I had to add water and eventually even some half & half to loosen it, but the damage was done. I ended up with 16 muffins instead of the intended 12 servings, and they cooked much faster than suggested.  But look at these photos! By appearance alone, I honestly think they look amazing. Deceivingly beautiful but unfortunately they are somehow both moist and tough all at once. The chewiness is very distracting from the taste which is actually really nice; the lemon rind and tang of the yogurt pair so well with the moist bursts of blueberry. It's a baking tragedy, sniff... easy enough to remedy next time, but I can't help but lament the loss of fantastic raw ingredients.

I really need to heed my own advice: the first time you make a recipe, avoid the temptation to modify it. Once you have a final product, its much easier to see the intended result and then make tweaks or modifications based on personal taste for the next time.