Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie

For the first rendition of Mackie’s recipe, I decided to modify the amount of leavening called for and bake the muffins at a higher temperature (400 degrees versus 375 degrees). I cut the original recipe in half and used 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder (in the original halved version, Mackie called for closer to 3 teaspoons). I also left out the fruit out because I wanted to taste the flavor of the muffins by themselves.

Pulling this batch out of the oven, you could see the difference immediately. This batch had browned nicely and had high, rounded tops. The flavor was good and the texture was much improved over the original.

Onto the second version.

For this version, the only change I made was to add fruit, blueberries in this case. I left everything else the same.

I still got my nicely rounded tops, and the muffins browned well, but they tasted kinda flat and watery. With the added fruit, I think the muffins need to bake a little longer, and I think I need to add some more sugar to the batter. Also, these muffins are just crying out for some sort of topping, such as a struesel.

Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie

I’ve been searching for the perfect fruit muffin recipe for some time. I’m looking for a master recipe where I can change the fruit according to what’s in season. That’s the same idea behind Mackie’s recipe.

The muffin batter is simply flour, sugar, salt, leavening, eggs, milk and butter. At the end, fresh fruit of your choice is folded into the batter and then baked. The batter itself is only slightly sweet, so it really showcases the flavor of the fruit.

Where to begin? My first problem was with the size of the muffins. Mackie says this recipe makes 6 to 8 muffins but doesn’t tell you what size those muffins should be. With 3 cups of flour, I assumed they made jumbo muffins, so I decided to cut the recipe in half. My next problem was with the leavening. There was just too much of it, and I ended up with flat or concave muffins with a really strange texture to them. But, I liked the flavor of the muffins, so I’ve decided to work on the recipe a bit, and post my results each time.

Currently baking out of Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook by Leslie Mackie

Some things, for better or worse, are guaranteed in my baking. First, when making jam or jelly, I will always cut down on the amount of sugar that the recipe calls for. Secondly, my biscuits will spread out instead of rising up. And thirdly, if I see a recipe that calls for cornmeal in a muffin or quick bread, I will make it immediately.

I don’t know why I have such a fascination with cornmeal in sweet goods. I don’t LOVE cornbread, but there’s something about the combination of cornmeal and fruit and sugar that just gets me humming.

Anyway, I knew I was going to make these muffins as soon as I read the title. This is a standard muffin recipe with cornmeal subbed in for some of the flour. In a twist, though, Mackie calls for a cup of diced pineapple, along with a cup of pineapple juice. Once the muffins are baked, the tops are dented and filled with raspberry jam.

Alas, cornmeal + pineapple + raspberry jam did not equal cornbready muffin nirvana.

The muffins tasted like they had cornmeal in them, but they weren’t sweet at all. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of sugar, but I’d probably up that a bit next time. Also, Mackie never tells you what size of muffins these make. The recipe states that it makes 6 to 8 muffins. I have to assume that those are jumbo-size muffins, since I used a standard 12-muffin pan and ended up throwing away almost of a third of my batter. Also, my muffins didn’t rise at all, so there wasn’t anything to dent. I ended up just dolloping each muffin with the jam. And finally, the chunks of pineapple were too big and most of them sank to the bottom of the muffins. Next time, I’ll use crushed pineapple so it spread through the batter a little better.