Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins (Times Two!)

Of course I had to make my first recipe post about muffins.  The title of this blog is not just an attempt at formulating a clever phrase that may be catchy one day (although that is certainly part of it); it is also an expression of my love for muffins, particularly chocolate chip ones.  Ever since I was young, I have had an affinity for these lovely baked goods.  I ate a muffin nearly every single morning for about a decade.  I never tire of them.  There's something so satisfying about the big kind especially, with the large, mushroomy top that you can pop off with little effort, revealing a soft, moist cylinder of cake underneath.

So, for these reasons, I knew I had to incorporate muffins into my first real post somehow.  I have actually never made muffins myself before.  I have always bought them from my local deli, bakery, and/or grocery store.  But recently, I acquired quite a lot of muffin mix from my local Winn Dixie.  (I say "acquired" rather than "bought," because Winn Dixie had a deal going on through which I got 6 packages of muffin mix fo' free when I bought 3 boxes of General Mills cereal, which we needed anyway.  Love when that happens!)  So I thought I'd take advantage of all the muffin makings I had (and still have) stashed away in my pantry.  But a blog post about adding milk to muffin mix is not very interesting.  So I thought I'd do a wee experiment: I'd make one batch of muffins with the mix, and I'd make one batch from scratch, both the same kind of muffin, and I'd see which tasted better and why.

Everything I needed for the mix-based muffins.

All the ingredients for the muffins from scratch.

The mix batch is ready to go into the oven!

Dry ingredients for the scratch batch, plus a whisk.

The mix batch - final product.

The scratch batch bakes...

I had a little bit of Greek yogurt left, so this is what I did with it - mixed in a few fresh blueberries and raspberries, along with about a tablespoon of sugar, and then ate it while waiting for the second batch to bake.  Yum.

The muffins from scratch - final product.

The two batches, side by side for comparison.  It's amazing how different muffins can be...

So the mix muffins were fairly good, but they were kind of dry and starchy.  They reminded me of store-bought muffins.  They were a lot lighter in color on the inside, too, but that could be because I used whole wheat flour for the other muffins.

The from-scratch muffins were very moist - I loved their texture, and I loved the way the blueberries popped in my mouth (as opposed to the little shards of dried blueberry in the other batch).  There was kind of a strange taste to them, but that could have been because I substituted Greek yogurt for regular yogurt in the recipe.

Overall, I'd say the homemade muffins win - especially if I make them again with regular yogurt, and a tad more sugar.  But I sure can tell you that I'm going to enjoy continuing my muffin tradition with one (or two) tomorrow morning for breakfast.

Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins (Adapted from Martha White Mix)

Yields 6 regular-size muffins

1 7.6-oz package Martha White Blueberry Cheesecake Muffin Mix
1/2 cup 2% milk
6 muffin/cupcake liners

Preheat oven to 425˚F.  Grease 6 muffin cups (or place liners in muffin tin).  Combine muffin mix and milk in large mixing bowl.  Mix together until batter is formed.  Fill each muffin cup 2/3 of the way full.  Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until golden brown.


Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins (Adapted from Roxygirl in Colorado's Recipe on Food.com)

Yields 12 regular-size muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour)

1/3 cup sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 cup melted butter

1/3 cup plain yogurt (I used plain Greek yogurt because that's all I had)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup ricotta cheese

2 eggs

1 cup blueberries (I used frozen, but I bet fresh ones mixed with a couple tablespoons of sugar would work well, too)
12 muffin/cupcake liners

Preheat oven to 375˚F.  Grease 12 muffin cups (more if you want mini muffins).  In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt with a wire whisk until well blended.  In a medium mixing bowl, beat together the almond extract, vanilla extract, melted butter, ricotta cheese, yogurt, and eggs.  Add to flour mixture.  Carefully fold in the blueberries.  If you use whole wheat flour, your batter will seem rather dry, but even if that's the case, the muffins will turn out moist.  Fill the muffin cups 2/3 of the way full, and bake for 20 minutes.