The Philosophical Fish

After a few more tries and some resounding failures I’ve come back a few steps and tried again. I’ve added a bit of sour cream this time to try and find that “tang”. I also bought a few more muffins from the bakery since it had been some time since I’ve had a comparison.

After nibbling away at one on the drive home and analysing bits of them I am certain that there is shredded cheddar cheese in them because I could see little orange bits in the dough. So here’s one small thing, we don’t buy orange cheddar, only aged white cheddar because we like its snap. So with that in mind, I’ll never hit the bakery ones exactly and that’s OK from a cheese perspective…I just want to get as close as I can using the cheese that I buy.
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3/4 cottage cheese
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 cup + 2 Tablespoons flour
1 Tbsp parmesan cheese, grated
2 Tbsp grated aged cheddar cheese
1+1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp sugar
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

I am now certain that they take several hours before they hit the really moist state that Solly’s sells them in so if they come out of the oven seeming too light and airy, just wait until they cool completely and they will be nice and moist.

However, I think the sour cream changed the texture and made them a little too wet. But they are very, very yummy. We did a side by side taste test with the ones from the bakery and Kirk said that the Solly’s are saltier. I agree and the missing salt and associated flavour comes from cheddar cheese. So. Hopefully one last batch might get us there!

OK, round five in the muffin challenge. I actually got a lot closer this time. I tried baking them in a popover pan instead of a muffin time to get the shape that they have at Solly’s. When they came out of the oven I wasn’t happy because they seemed too light and airy. Oddly though, I covered them and didn’t try one until the next day. By that time they had somehow “densed up” a bit and were pretty close to what I am after.

What still seems to be missing though, is the nuggets of cottage cheese that I remember from the first ones I ate. I think that my next batch will use dry cottage cheese instead of the wet kind. I bought a tub and will try it in the next batch.

In the meantime, these are VERY good and were gone quickly. Interestingly though, they really were a bit better the next day. It’s almost like the moisture from the cottage cheese loosened up a bit and migrated around.

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3/4 cottage cheese
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 (medium) eggs (I usually use 2 large but the grocery store was out of my usual eggs)
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp parmesan cheese, grated
2 Tbsp grated aged cheddar cheese
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
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

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….

OK, so now that the first six were gone, I could take another stab at these infamous muffins.

That last batch was too dry and didn’t have the right texture. So this time I added more egg, a touch more cottage cheese, and increased the leavening agents a bit. I also increased the oven temperature and decreased the baking time.

1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp cottage cheese
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp parmesan cheese, grated
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

mix dry stuff in one bowl, wet stuff in another, mix together until just moistened through.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes

Result? Much better. I got that moist, chewy, eggy consistency I was after, the parmesan flavour is less “there”and they rose better than the last batch.

But – there is something missing. A tangy-ness is in the original that I’m missing here somewhere.

Lemon? Sour cream? Maybe I will try souring milk with lemon juice instead of using the buttermilk. That may make them a bit lighter and may introduce the missing tang….