high-bar baking

The recipe delivered as promised. Alton Brown told me it would be a muffin the way muffins used to be. A food of substance, not a cupcake costumed for breakfast. 

And he was right. These have a coarser texture and aren’t as sweet. I don’t feel like the worst person in the world for eating two of them before the first CFB games kicked off at 10. 

It was recommended to me to make these with the small wild blueberries, a throwback to the can of blueberries in the box mix of old. I want to do those next time; this time I just used the frozen regular ones I had in the fridge. 

I also sprinkled some Demerara sugar on top, because I love that as a muffin addition. And because I suspected my modern self would need a little more sweetness than they’d give me. It worked out. When I make them next time, I’m either going to include lemon zest in the batter and in the sugar on top, or I’m going to add vanilla to the batter. I think they needed just a smidge of something. 

He also had me rest the muffins on their sides as soon as they came out of the oven. I’d never heard of that before. He doesn’t want them to have soggy bottoms. Also a problem I’d never heard of before. But I love all things experimental, so I did as directed. I suppose it worked? It’s not a pie crust; the bottoms will never be crisp. But they weren’t wet. And that’s cool. 

A throwback muffin. Both to childhood and to an age when muffins were a little muffin-ier.