OK, took another stab at recreating those cottage cheese muffins. Got closer, but still not quite there.
I was missing a tang, and there were some dark chewy bits on the edges that I haven’t yet captured so I made some adjustments. I also thought they needed a hint of sweetness so thought I’d pop a bit of sugar in there to take the savoury edge off. I was going to sour milk with lemon juice, only to discover I was out of milk, so I went with what I had on hand. So this is where I ended up yesterday.
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp cottage cheese
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp softened butter
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp parmesan cheese, grated
~ 2-3 Tbsp grated aged cheddar cheese
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
1/4 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
mix dry stuff in one bowl, wet stuff in another, mix together until just moistened through. Pile into 6 greased muffin cups.
Bake at 375 for 20 minutes
Results?
Better. Nice and chewy, moist, I got those chewy bits (cheddar) and they tasted a bit more rounded in flavour (sugar and vanilla). But the lemon rind (although very very tasty) didn’t belong. While it is very yummy in there, it didn’t match with the bakery muffins.
Next Steps?
I still am not quite capturing the same tang as in the originals. So I might drop the buttermilk from the equation and try yogurt. I make my own at home and it has a nice tang. A bit of lemon juice might help it along but the lemon rind has to go. Otherwise, I think I’ll leave everything the same for the next attempt.
Note
I went to a different Solly’s bakery this week to grab muffins to taste my own against and discovered something….. not all Solly’s cottage cheese muffins are created equal. The one’s from the 8th and Yukon bakery were much better than the ones from the Broadway bakery, definitely more moist and flavourful. Perhaps it was just luck of the day and the ones I bought on Friday were baked my a newbie. Not sure…but the first muffins were definitely better than these last ones. So, obviously I’ll have to buy some more and see where the real pattern lies….
(If you are looking for the final recipe, you can find it here –> http://thephilosophicalfish.ca/muffin-mistake/)