The Great Blueberry Muffin Showdown of 2010

   

Clockwise from top left: batch 2, batch 4, batch 5, batch 3, batch 1

This showdown was a little different than last year's brownie showdown.  Instead of searching for my favorite brownie, I was trying to find the best blueberry muffin recipe as a gift for my cousin even though I don't like blueberries and, as such, never eat blueberry muffins.

I made 5 batches of a dozen full size muffins each (plus a few mini muffins) using recipes from 5 different cookbooks.

The contenders:

• Batch 1: From the French Culinary Institute cookbook.  Medium difficulty.  No topping.  Makes 12.
• Batch 2: From Culinary Institute of America cookbook.  Complex recipe.  (Note I substituted walnut oil for vegetable oil, because I was out of the latter).  Sanding sugar topping. Makes 12 normal plus 12 mini.
• Batch 3: From Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. Plain sugar topping.  Relatively easy.  Makes 12 normal plus 7 mini.
• Batch 4: From Williams Sanoma Muffins cookbook.  Relatively easy, but with the added step of making the topping.  Crumble topping.  Makes 12.  
• Batch 5: From Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess.  Easy.  No topping.  (Made in muffin papers.)  Makes 12. 

The judges:

• Myself: I admit I was slightly biased towards muffins that were less blueberry-ish, so I may not have been the best person to judge this showdown.
• My mom: loves blueberries and baked goods, so she was quite helpful.
• My pops: a bit (and only a bit) picky when it comes to sweets, which is helpful for a showdown, but also biased toward crumble topping which probably hurt his objectivity.
• My friend, Adriana: I wanted one extra person outside the family to get a wider sample.  She took her task as a taster very seriously!

The results:

• Batch 1: A basic, staple, buttery blueberry muffin.
• Batch 2: Very nice, simple, cakey muffin.  The sanding sugar on top is a plus.
• Batch 3: Sweet, dense muffin.  The crust of sugar on top is a plus.  
• Batch 4: Great crumble.  Basic muffin with a nice flavor from the spices.
• Batch 5: Buttery, soft, very nice.

The winner has been announced!