Research and Bluberry Muffins

So despite the recent blogs about canning escapades and dying pets, Courtney and I have been making progress on our quest of opening our mobile bakery.

I've talked to quite a few (surprisingly!) helpful folks at the Department of Health and finally connected with the commercial kitchen. Though start-up costs will be minimal compared to starting a store front, they are still something to be considered. We'll need a food handling permit ($50 and good for 2 years) and proof of commercial insurance (on my list of things to get a quote on) in order to rent space at the kitchen. The kitchen's rates are dependent on a lot of factors, including income. I have plans to pick up the application packet this week so that I can dig into all the variables and try to figure out what sort of kitchen space we'll need to rent. I'll also need to figure out if any prep work can be done at home or if it all needs to happen in the commercial kitchen. Then we need to test and time our recipes in order to prioritize and script our time to be as efficient as possible.

In order to sell our goods, we'll need a temporary food establishment permit, around $25 that will need to be renewed about 3-4 times per year (the rules on how long this one is good for are kind of complicated... but all in all we should budget $100/ year to be prepared).

I've been sent a packet of FDA paperwork that tells me how to properly label my packaged goodies for retail sale. That's a ways down the road, but nice to have the info in advance.

The health department also gave me the GREAT news that I am legally allowed to use my own backyard produce when cooking/ baking goods that I plan on selling. Though I don't pull in a ton of surplus produce now, perhaps in the future I will. I'm really excited about this possibility!

Finally, I am delving into some detective work. I need to figure out how to make my Lilikoi Butter and Lemon Curd shelf stable so that the food lab where I am required to send samples to will give me a green light to sell my canned goods. Without this green light everything will need to be sold as perishable and on ice... making it difficult for people to ship to friends on the mainland as gifts, a huge market I want to make sure we reach. My initial research is showing me I'm gonna have to learn more about Potassium Sorbate and Citric Acid. I don't like the idea of adding anything artificial-sounding to my butters and curds at all... but am playing the game with the health department to assure that I don't get shut down, or (worse) sued.

So the papers are piling up and the number crunching has begun. I'm getting very excited to start putting together a business plan and dive into this.

So where do Blueberry Muffins fit into all this research? At first glance they don't. But all this research is being done so that I can share these tasty little guys with the local farmer's market crowd, and practice makes perfect, right? Plus I needed to do some baking to distract my thoughts from missing chickens and cute boys.

So with that rational in mind, I picked up some mangos and blueberries at the store last night. I mixed my dry ingredients before bed so that I wouldn't procrastinate and put off baking in the morning. A great strategy because I don't function well at all in the wee hours and gravitate toward the toaster or the microwave if I don't have a breakfast plan.

This morning I finished baking the muffins. I ask you- is there anything more heavenly than steaming, hot, hearty muffins loaded with oats, bran and fresh fruit fruit served alongside a freshly laid and fried egg? I added a pot of fresh brewed Chai tea, sweetened with a spoonful of sweetened condensed milk just to push it over the edge. Decedent yet simple. I wanted to stretch eating this breakfast through the whole day, it was that good!


My muffin recipe is a combo of my mom's age-old Blueberry Muffin recipe that I grew up on, and inspiration from Brooklyn's creative Blue Sky Bakery. The only place I've ever eaten muffins that I can say rival my moms. Quite serious. My sister used to live about a mile from little hole-in-the-wall gem in Park Slope. Despite her moving to Queens over a year ago, a trip to the muffin shop remains a highlight of anyone's trip to NYC to visit her. Blackberry Peach muffins anyone? What about Pumpkin Apple Walnut muffins? I tried to find a website for them to give them the publicity they rightly deserve... but I couldn't find one (whaa?). However, if you're ever in Brooklyn, trust me that this place deserves at least one visit!

I used fresh mangos for the center of these yummy muffins, but usually use whatever fruit I can find fresh. I've experimented with apples, nectarines, raspberries and more. You honestly can't screw these up :)

Can I share a muffin baking tip that doesn't get shared enough?: Don't overmix your muffins.
Most muffin recipes say "mix quickly until batter is just wet." (or some variance on that phrase). It's no joke. You don't want to overmix muffins. They end up tough and dense rather than light and spongy with a crispy top. No one likes a muffin they have to gnaw on.

The following recipe makes 1 1/2 dozen muffins or 1 dozen monster muffins. I usually make the normal size if they're for me and the monster size if I bake them with someone else in mind (usually I am begging forgiveness or trying to impress someone)  :)

Mom's Famous Blueberry Muffins, with a Mango Twist

2 cups of flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup bran
1 cup oats
Mix these dry ingredients together and form a well (or a hole) at the center of the bowl.

1 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
1 well beaten large egg
 2 cups blueberries
1-2 mashed bananas
Mix the wet ingredients together first, then add all at once to the dry mix's well. Mix quickly, just until the dry ingredients are wet.


1 mango (or 1 cup of fruit of your choice), peeled and sliced very thin. 
Set aside.


Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray or oil. Then using a spoon, scoop about 1 tablespoon of batter into each of the muffin cups. Making sure the bottom of each cup is covered with batter, spoon about 1 to 1/2 teaspoons of fresh mango on top of the batter. Then cover the mango with another tablespoon or so of muffin batter to completely hide the mango. For monster size muffins you may want to add 2 tablespoons of batter on top of the mango.

Covering the mango with muffin batter.

Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Muffins are done when the batter doesn't stick to a knife inserted into them... or when the muffins are getting a nice golden honey brown on their tops. Cool for at least 10 minutes in the tins. Run a knife around them before removing them to prevent the mango center from separating the muffin and carefully keep the muffin in one piece as you gently lift them out.

Muffins are amazing hot and piping from the oven... but they taste delish cold too!

So enjoy the muffins, I certainly will. And then the research and detective work resumes.