Week 3: Muffins, again
After the failures of my last two recipes, I had a new idea: instead of using recipes which used whey as a primary ingredient, why don’t I try making a normal recipe and modify it to my own tastes? Needless to say, this own turned out soooooo much better.
The Baking Process
I used a really basic muffin recipe and there really isn’t too much I can say about it, simply because I used the recipe as it was, for the most part. The only notable things I could mention is that I used the “mise en place” method, meaning that I pre-measured out all of my ingredients before starting that way I would have not only less mess, but less hassle. It was a great decision (and the one thing I can thank my Jr. High Home Ec. teacher for) and made the process a lot easier. Instead of using the full 2 cups of flour, I replaced 1/2 cup of it with unflavoured whey powder (which, for the record, is disgusting alone). Also, I added about 1 tsp. of vanilla extract because I just happen to love vanilla. The batter looked, smelled and tasted pretty normal and when I baked the muffins, they looked and behaved very normally. Success!
The Taste Test
Because I didn’t mess with the recipe too much, the muffins tasted virtually the same as I would have expected had I made the original recipe. The only difference I could detect was that they seemed a bit dry, but that could have been from overbaking slightly or even improper measurement on my part. Because I love muffins, I loved these just as much, also knowing that I was able to cut the carb content a little bit, but add some much-loved protein.
Conclusions
Out of all of my experiments to date, this was by far the most successful. I would definitely recommend this to anybody. As for myself, I may try to make them again with more whey to up the protein content even more, but I need to be careful because the powder alone has a really nasty taste and I need to make sure to balance it in such a way that I can’t taste it. These will be back in my kitchen very soon!