Of Failures

First attempt at orange muffins

Even the best of us can fail sometimes. In fact there's tons of scientific literature on human error and how to avoid it. Engineers design systems specifically to minimize these errors. Sometimes the solution is as simple as getting enough sleep, but sometimes it's as complicated as designing a new system. I guess it's the same thing in baking and cooking. There a loads of ways one can make mistakes in baking and cooking. And though I've never burnt the kitchen down, I've had my moments of failures. Here are two examples.

I've wanted for some time to make orange muffins and since we had the most beautiful supply of oranges this year, I thought it would be the perfect time to make them. My first recipe came from: The Domestic Goddess blog. From the very start, I thought it was weird that the recipe did not include any leavening agent like baking powder or even baking soda. Still, I desperately wanted to make these, so I followed the recipe, despite my doubts. My second mistake here was simply changing the lemons to oranges, without remembering that the oranges were very sweet on their own. The result was a sickly sweet muffin that felt more like rubber than a muffin.

My second attempt turned out better, but I still managed to make a mistake. The good part was, it's not really my own fault. Has anyone told you that sometimes you cannot trust your senses? Well that's definitely true here. When I made the second batch, I picked up a jar filled with what I thought was flour. Yes, looked, felt and smelled like flour, and in my head I thought ", It must be flour." How totally wrong I was. Once the muffins baked, they looked a lot better than my first attempt despite not having a muffin top. Unfortunately, they had an odd flour-like smell to them. I was about to chalk all these up to me using old flour, but when I told my mom about it, her face fell. It turns out I might have used rice flour instead. Since my mom's kitchen did not really have labels, I must have picked up the wrong jar. See what I mean about changing the system?

Anyway, I would still use this recipe from Pinch of Yum again. Hopefully the next time I make muffins, I'll actually have the right flour. The muffins actually taste good despite the floury smell.

Orange Muffin
1/3 cup milk
3 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used canola)
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons corn syrup
juice of 1 large orange (I used naval oranges)
1 cup flour
1/3 cup muscovado sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

For glaze (optional, I opted out)
1 cup powdered or icing or confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice

orange zest plus white sugar (1:2 ratio)

Start by preheating the oven to 350F or 180C. Whisk milk, oil, egg, corn syrup and orange juice together. Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir until just combined. Pour into a prepared muffin pan and bake for 10-15minutes.

For the glaze, combine the powdered sugar and the orange juice. Drizzle this over the muffins and sprinkle a mixture of orange zest and white sugar on top.

Edit: I finally found out what sort of "flour" I added to the muffins. My dad says it's semolina. Trust me to mistake semolina for all purpose flour.