Driss-A-Blog: Muffins

I was talking to Rachel at work on Monday, and she asked, “So, are you participating in the bake-off? It's Wednesday.”

“I wasn't planning to.”

“Oh, c'mon. It's not that hard. You can just use a cake mix.”

“If I'm going to make anything, it's not going to be from a mix.”

And so of course, I had to put something together. Looking through my cookbook, the blueberry muffins looked good. The only concern was that it called for sour cream. I talked to Rachel the next day, and she said she'd baked with the Tofutti substitute.

So muffins it would be.

In California last week, we had an Iron Chef team-building competition, and I felt it was appropriate to bring the apron out for another spin.

We didn't have a whisk. Or spatula. Or flour, or butter, or anything. Just sugar and salt. So I went shopping.

Half-stick of margarine. Pre-melting.

Blueberries, of course. From Chile. I tried to find two packs that weren't obviously moldy or bad. I would have preferred frozen ones, but I couldn't find them.

Margarine. Post-melting.

Flour, baking powder, salt. The dry bowl.

One egg. Start of the wet bowl.

Add the sugar to the well-beaten egg.

Slowly beat in the margarine.

Wet. And Dry.

Before we mix things up, we need to get the blueberries coated with the flour so that they stay put in the batter.

Peek-a-boo!

And... pour!

The dirty dishes keep piling up.

“Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture. Fold to form batter, but do not overmix.”

And it comes together so nicely. At this point, this is blueberry muffin dough.

Pastel cups.

Carefully spoon the dough into the cups. You can also see some leftover blueberries, perfect for snacking on while the muffins cook.

The smell of muffins. The white speckles are where flour got caught in the crevices of the blueberries.

Cooling rack? What cooling rack? I look around the apartment frantically, but the only thing that looks vaguely usable is a wall from the snap-together modular storage unit in my bedroom. The muffin in the rear right was broken apart by me to make sure the muffins were fully cooked. They were.