Double Blueberry Muffins

Bread Challenge Week 9

When I was a kid I used to make a culinary masterpiece of a lunch for my brother and sister almost weekly. What was this lunch? Boxed macaroni and cheese, canned corn and blueberry muffins also from a box. What can I say, I was quite the chef. We love it though. To this day every time I make Mac and Cheese for Maddy I have an overwhelming urge to make blueberry muffins to go along with it. I’m not sure why I don’t because honestly blueberry muffins are delicious.

Well folks it seems that Martha Stewart and her many publications are not always right, best, or yummiest. Looking for a blueberry muffin recipe I came across Double Blueberry Muffins on MarthaStewart.com and was intrigued by many things. This was the only semi-basic recipe I could find that called for less than a full cup to a cup and a half of sugar. Also a couple of weeks ago I was taken over with a longing for blueberry muffins with a hint of lemon flavor even though I had never eaten or heard of such a thing before. Lastly, corn meal in blueberry muffins? What’s not intriguing about that?

If you scroll down you will see that this recipe did not get high marks in two of the most important categories for this baker; flavor, and versatility. I liked the idea of lemon and blueberry, and I still do, but the lemon in the recipe was just too over powering and the flavor of the blueberry was almost lost.
The muffins, although lower on sugar than other recipes, seemed overly sweet which I attribute to the overabundant lemon flavor and the mashed blueberries in the batter. It I were to make this exact recipe again I would cut the lemon zest by a third and replace about half of the corn meal with flour. I liked having a bit of texture but it was almost a little too much. I would suggest using a more finely ground corn meal for this recipe.

Martha’s Double Blueberry Muffin recipe says it makes 12 muffins but I think the recipe is better suited to making 13 or 14. I made 12 and i think they would have come out looking a little better if there was a little less batter in each cup.

The recipe is easy to follow and well written and the muffins come together very quickly taking just over an hour to mix, bake, and cool completely even with my 2 year old baking helpers. Quick breads are often one or two trick pony’s and this one is no different. Versatility of this recipe is limited to blueberry muffins or blueberry quick bread and either of those will only get you a side or a snack.

Maddy loved these muffins, which is not surprising since they were pretty sweet. Luke and I both agreed that the lemon flavor was too overpowering and the muffins tasted a little too sweet. I can think of a dozen ways to possibly modify this recipe to get a healthier muffin with a more balanced flavor and texture so although I will not be making these particular Double Blueberry Muffins again, I do plan on playing around with the idea of lemon and blueberry muffins more in the future.

Flavor: 3
Hands on time: 4
Total time: 4
Recipe: 4
Versatility: 2
Make it again:2
Catherine: 0
Luke: 0
Maddy: 1

Total Score: 20
(what is this Bread Challenge and how are recipes scored?)

Previous Bread Challenge bread reviews and scores:
Oatmeal Batter Bread – Week 8
Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls – Week 7
Cheesy Pretzels – Week 6
Light Rye Bread – Week 5
Country-Style Whole-Wheat Pita – Week 4
Carrot Raisin Quick Bread – Week 3
Potato Bread – Week 2
Focaccia – Week 1