WHAT HAPPENED TO MUFFINS?

Muffins used to be far more popular than they are today. Lots of restaurants used to put a basket of muffins on the table at dinnertime as an alternative to sliced bread, but you rarely see that anymore. I used to manage a restaurant where we did a big breakfast business. Our most popular breakfast was the ‘Lucky 21’ combination. It included 2 eggs, bacon or sausage, coffee, and a muffin. I made the muffins. The ‘Lucky 21′ breakfast cost $1.21, so obviously this was a long time ago. Today, most restaurants that have muffins on their breakfast menu offer them as a meal option, not just as part of a meal. Why? It’s because muffins got huge! I’ve started making muffins again and making them the same way that I made them when I managed that restaurant long ago. My muffins contain between 150 and 200 calories. By comparison, a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cake muffin contains 590 calories. Costco muffins contain over 600 calories. Some Cinnabons contain over 1,000 calories. As muffins got bigger and bigger and more and more filling, restaurants stopped including them in meal combinations. At some point, the muffin became the whole meal, and then restaurants stopped serving them. Restaurants would rather sell you a meal than a muffin. I am nostalgic for the days when a muffin was the size of an unfrosted cupcake, not a loaf of bread, and was just part of a meal.

FAKE BLUEBERRY MUFFINS.

Another reason for the demise of muffins is that the quality of the ingredients went downhill. For example, 50 years ago, blueberry muffins had blueberries in them. Today, most packaged blueberry muffins and blueberry muffin mixes are made with imitation blueberries. Look at the photo below of Martha White Blueberry Muffin Mix. The photo on the box shows muffins bursting with blueberries and fresh whole blueberries in front of them. But if you read the ingredients on the side of the box, you will find that what looks like blueberries are actually ‘artificial blueberry bits’. Most blueberry muffin mixes are made with imitation blueberries, and it isn’t just blueberry muffins that are made with fake blueberries. A lot of blueberry pancakes, blueberry waffles, and blueberry breakfast cereals are also made with fake blueberries. Some products that are marketed as health food, like blueberry granola and nutritional bars, are also made with imitation blueberries. The reason for this is simple. Fake blueberries are much cheaper than real blueberries.

Real Blueberries That Aren’t Real Blueberries. There are a lot of blueberry products that say they are made with real blueberries but that doesn’t mean what you think it means. Take a look at the picture below of Kellogg’s Special K Blueberry Protein Meal Bars. This appear to be a healthy product, filled with real blueberries, but if you read the ingredients, you find that what appear to be blueberries are actually ‘blueberry flavored cranberries’ that have been dyed blue.  Special K Blueberry Bar Ingredients. There are many other ‘blueberry’ products like this on the market. It works this way – if a product contains imitation blueberries, but the imitation blueberries have some real blueberry juice in or on them, then the manufacturer can say that the product is made with ‘real blueberries’. So, here is my question….should we call a cranberry that has been dyed blue a blueberry? It is blue, and it is a berry, but to my way of thinking, a blueberry is a specific kind of berry. A blueberry is not the same thing as a blue berry. Note the space between the words ‘blue’ and ‘berry.’ What do you think?



NEW IN THE CHOCOLATE ROOM.
Cinnamon Streusel Muffins.
These muffins are also known as cinnamon crumbcake or coffee cake muffins. ‘Streusel’ means crumb in German and Yiddish.  These muffins are my personal favorite. Best of all, they taste just like the cinnamon streusel muffins that your old German Aunt Johanna used to make! Well – at least they taste just like the cinnamon streusel muffins that my old German Aunt Johanna used to make. A word or warning…because I don’t use preservatives, my muffins will go stale in just a few days at room temperature or in the refrigerator. I store them in my freezer. They freeze very well. Most packaged muffins contain preservatives. The worst are the bagged mini muffins that are made for vending machines and dollar stores. They typically ‘stay fresh’ for 60 to 90 days according to the manufacturers. My guess is that you will live longer if you don’t eat them.