Snacking Surprise Muffins

Snacking Surprise Muffins

This is actually an interesting concept. That concept being surprising the consumer with peach preserve inside what looks like just any other blueberry muffin. But would that be a good surprise. I'd hope so, I don't like muffins that much so I haven't eaten one yet but my mom liked it. The recipe for this surprising snack is in the book "Silly Snacks, Classroom Treats, Cookie Dough Fun" by Louis Weber. This book is separated into 3 different sections (Silly Snacks, Classroom Treats and Cookie Dough Fun) and the section I went to for this recipe was Classroom Treats and on page 154 is where I found this particular recipe. I was interested in people's reaction to the mixture, mixing peach preserves in the inside of the muffin and I was quite interested to see how it will turn out. The ingredients that you must have for this treat are all-purpose flour, sugar, fresh or frozen blueberries, baking powder, ground cinnamon, salt, an egg, buttermilk, butter and peach preserves (Weber 154). On the actual page it mentioned the specific amounts needed and the condition they should be in before cooking.

So once I had all the ingredients I started cooking. The instruction reads, "Preheat oven to 400°F. Line 12 standard (2½-inch) muffin cups with paper baking cups; set aside" (Weber 154). Unlike last time I cooked I did this right away and my oven was ready when I was done and I already had the 12 muffins ready.

The next step reads, "Combine flour, 1/2 cup sugar, blueberries, baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and salt in medium bowl. Combine egg, buttermilk and margarine in small bowl. Add to flour mixture; mix just until moistened" (Weber 154). This step is very straight forward. First, I put 1 and a half cups of all purpose flour in the bowl. Then I added a half cup of sugar. But this is where I messed up. I misread 1 teaspoon of cinnamon with 1 tablespoon instead. Which are quite different... Apparently, it just made it have a stronger taste but didn't ruin it since cinnamon is a enjoyable taste. After that I put the blueberries in and the baking powder and salt. Next, I got out another small little metal bowl and cracked an egg in it. Then, I added a 2/3 cup of buttermilk. Simultaneously, I had 1/4 butter in a small glass bowl in the microwave so it would melt. I started to melt but I stopped it early so when I put it back it kind of popped and splatted a little bit of it throughout the microwave. So, I cleaned the microwave with a napkin and just decided to not fully melt it and just mix it well with a spoon in the bowl. So once I had that all settled I mixed them together in the big bowl with a wooden spoon. It was extremely thick and didn't mix easily so I added some more buttermilk so it would be smoother.

The 3rd step reads, "Spoon about 1 tablespoon batter into each muffin cup. Drop a scant teaspoonful of preserves into center of batter in each cup; top with remaining batter” (Weber 154). This took me a little while since it was still really thick but I was able to do it. I have no idea what on earth is a scant so I just found one of those spoons that you use to feed babies and that seemed like a reasonable amount of peach preserve. I put that on top of the cups of batter and then added the rest of the batter on top so that the peach preserve would be a surprise.

The 4th step says, "Combine 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon in small bowl; sprinkle even over tops of batter" (Weber 154). This is again a very straightforward step. I got a small glass bowl, basically the same as the one I used for the butter earlier. I got another small spoon but bigger than the one I used for the peach preserves. I used that spoon to mix the cinnamon and sugar and also used it for sprinkling. I sprinkled it pretty evenly if I say so myself.

The final step is, “Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove muffins to wire rack to cool completely” (Weber 154).  I put in for 18:30 and when it sounded it's beeping noise I checked on it and it looked good so I took them out. They look pretty good and I think they'll taste just fine.

My question for you. Would you ever cook something with a surprise ingredient (good or bad)? Why or why not?