But then, I got this great idea. Why not make several batches of muffins with my BOGO blueberries and figure out what recipe really was “the best” (at least as voted by the people who live in my house).

I googled and came up with the following recipes

The aforementioned muffins from Cookie madness
Double Blueberry Muffins from Martha Stewart and..
Lemon-Blueberry muffins from Cooking Light and Blueberry Muffins from Betty Crocker.

After grocery shopping on Sunday, the Princess and I rolled up our sleeves and went to town. Here are the muffins in reverse ranked order, from our least favorite to the best

4) Blueberry Muffins from Betty Crocker.

Yes, I know. What did I actually expect from muffins made from Bisquick. In honesty, the muffins tasted fine and were the prettiest of the lot overall. They were also the least ingredient and time intensive. And the least expensive. Good if you’re in a bind and chances are good if you don’t elevate your game with three other kinds of blueberry muffins, your family will be more than happy. Also, this would be a great recipe for kids to go solo on. Nothing complicated (like using something to zest lemons with, etc)

3) Lemon-Blueberry muffins with Lemon Glaze from Cooking Light

They were okay. Better than the Betty Crocker muffins, but with the extra steps and ingredients, they should be. This batch yielded a lot more than the 12 Cooking Light called for. I might be using a smaller muffin pan (there’s more on this in a later muffin), but I found I could get 18 muffins out of this batter instead of the called for 12. That reduced the calories and fat total (as written, the betty crocker recipe is actually better for you).

2) Double Blueberry Muffins from Martha Stewart.

Okay, let me start off by saying I made a tactical error with this recipe. It makes a lot of batter. I have a 12 cup muffin tin that is apparently smaller than Martha Stewart’s. In making the muffins, I thought it seemed like a ton of batter, but loaded the cups anyhow. The muffins turned out ugly. Seriously, seriously ugly.

See?

They rose up over the muffin cups and turned the top of the muffin pan into a solid block o’ muffin. I tried a knife and a spoon to get them out of the cups, but they got ugly and only a few survived into looking anything like a muffin. What’s a girl to do? Drink until they look better.

It works for college kids and bar goers, so why not muffins?

But overall, while they might have been ugly they were DELICIOUS. A little sweet, with a great, dense cake-like consistency. More time intensive than the betty crocker muffins, but no more than the ones from cooking light (with much better flavor).

But overall?
1) Cookie Madness’s favorite blueberry muffin recipe wons hands down. The muffin itself was sweeter which made the blueberries really zing. They were moist and dense, but not TOO dense with a really great flavor. I loved the addition of the vanilla and the plain yogurt and even the batter tasted, looked and smelled fantastic.

I have one more container of blueberries in the fridge, enough to make a double or triple batch of this wonderful recipe. I’ll load the extras into the fridge for blueberry goodness once the Princess starts the school year.

I have to say, I liked this experiment. The Princess and I spent a few hours together on the muffins, which was nice. Big Daddy girl snuggled which was nice for him (he went back to work today and enjoyed the quiet time) and we’ve been snacking on muffins since afternoon yesterday. And, it’s nice to be able to celebrate what’s happening with seasonal produce.