Love Muffin

I spend an extraordinary amount on food. There's not a lot I can do about lunch, as I'm typically ravenously hungry by 1 pm, but I acknowledge the need to ease up on spending for breakfast. I have three coffee options in the morning: the street truck on 113th and Amsterdam whose line is usually too long, the overpriced Artopolis on the south side of the building or the slightly less expensive but annoyingly busy Strokos on the north side. Oh, wait, the fourth option: MAKING MY OWN FRAKKING COFFEE. But gah, I'm 15 minutes late to work basically every day as it is (1 hour and 15 minute 2 transfer commute, give me a break), and sometimes you just want to have things done for you. The compromise I have made is making my own breakfast muffins. Occasionally I'll still buy a croissant, donut, or oatmeal in the morning, but bringing in made-from-scratch muffins is just so damn satisfying.

I began with this blueberry-raspberry muffin recipe from Emeril. It calls for buttermilk. Is it just me, or is buttermilk super grody. Seriously, it smells and looks awful. The muffins were okay, but had a weird aftertaste. I tried the recipe the week after replacing with plain milk and the muffins were a lot better and probably healthier (though let's face it - not by much). Next, I tried this cinnamon muffin recipe which calls for shortening. Add that to the list to disgrossting ingredients one should avoid. The muffins themselves are actually ok. Less moist then both previous batches, which is good because I store the muffins together and take one (okay fine, two) to work every day and hate when they get all sponge-y. I used Emeril's method of streusel topping (without the walnuts of course - allergic) only this time, added it at the very end. Bad idea. The crumbies get all over the place and the muffins don't look very cute.

I'll try another recipe this Sunday, one that does not require lard-like ingredients.