Here Comes the Muffin Man - Not!

After my success with Banana Bread, my confidence is growing. I decide to bring in hot blueberry muffins to work! (page 46 - I decided against doing all these recipes in order).

Well. That didn't quite happen this morning (May 16, 2007). It started out great... woke up at 5:00 am to start my batch of blueberry muffins.

Everything goes well. I use the Cook's Illustrated method of whisking the eggs and sugar first, then adding other stuff I can't remember (whisking some more) and then adding the sour cream. My arm hurt after all that whisking my hand.

I carefully fold the wet and dry ingredients. I employ a light spray of nonstick cooking spray on my spatula to prevent sticking when I fill my muffin tin (no paper liners for these muffins!)

They bake up for 25 minutes as I wash the dishes and make breakfast. I pull them out and the muffin tops look Elaine-worthy. The recipe tells me to flip out the muffin and let them cool for 5 minutes. One of them completely falls apart on me. The others have huge amounts of blueberries on the bottom - making a smurf-butt muffin. (I used regular Trader Joe's frozen blueberries but Cook's says I should use frozen WILD blueberries because they are smaller...okay, next time).

The all important moment arrives. The taste test. The whole damn reason for learning how to cook! So I can EAT baked goods!

I take one bite and it was like eating a piece of salty metal. Oh, the disaster.

Turns out I used Baking Soda instead of Baking Powder. In my defense, it was (a) 5:00 am in the morning and (b) since when does Baking Soda come in cylinder containers?! I had previously purchased baking powder at Trader Joe's. When Cook's Illustrated tells me that baking powder only lasts 6 months (who knew!?), I went out to TJ and picked up what I thought was baking powder. Well, as I found out this morning...it wasn't. Here is a photo of the cans.

This is where the muffins ended up. Oh well. I'll try again tomorrow.