March 12, 2010...8:40 pm

Mediocre Muffins and Voting for the best!

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These muffins here are not mediocre!  They are fantastic.  You can find the recipe for them here. 

What we did yesterday as a demo and today as a lab was mediocre.  I really was questioning whether or not I should blog about this lab, but my students convinced me that I should share my opinion about the new Duncan Hines whole wheat muffin mixes.  So here goes. 

Our first lab is usually making muffins using a mix.  It is easy and a great way to get the students acquainted with the lab.  I was unable to cook them because the purchase order had not been approved so we just moved on to something else.  The purchase order came in this week.  When you get approved to spend money you have to spend it.  So  I bought a new Duncan Hines whole wheat blueberry muffin and an apple cinnamon with oatmeal topping, also whole wheat.  

I have used Duncan Hines bakery style blueberry muffins for year.  They are good in a pinch.  GI Joe who has very few cooking skills can even make them!  And when someone else cooks them they are even better. 

Anyway to get back to the original story, we had a great discussion yesterday about whole wheat flour.  It does not last long and should be stored in the refrigerator for longer life.  The boxed mixes expired May of this year.  I was really surprised!  Boxed mixes usually are good for a year. We talked calories!  Wow, these babies have a whopping 240.  The blueberry had 220 calories.    These were not pretty muffins.  They were rather flat.  They did not have the pretty  rounded tops .  They took longer to cook than stated on the box in most of my ovens.  Tastewise they were just Ok.  The students like the strusel topping the best.  Of course it is all sugar!  Boxed mixes are expensive !  Making muffins from scratch is cheaper and so much better.  You can control what goes in the muffin and you can add healthier choices for example fresh apple instead of sugary  apple filling.  The only good point is the 3 grams of fiber.  I was very disappointed, but it was  a good learning experience for all.

Here are the results for today’s cookoff.  Vote for the one of your choice.  By the way all the groups did a great job.  The only travesty was one kitchen cooked theirs a little too long.   Note a couple of groups brought their own muffin mix. 

1st Block Kitchen 5

1st Block Kitchen 4

1st Block Kitchen 1

1st Block Kitchen 6

1st Block Kitchen 2

2nd Block Kitchen 5

2nd Block Kitchen 4

2nd Block Kitchen 2

2nd Blcok Kitchen 1

2nd Block Kitchen 6

2nd Block Kitchen 3

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Filed under Muffins, corn muffins, quick

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