some of our scrumptious muffins
Over the past two weeks, Cindy and Heather have been taking a long, hard look at our muffin lineup. After nearly six months of a set routine, they've wiped the chalkboard clean and are redesigning our weekly muffin selection.
While it's a lot of work, it's one of the fun things we get to do at the bakery. Especially because we get to ask a ton of questions:
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What have you been telling us? "Oh I love those Raisin Bran muffins!" "Raisins? Ewww!" We take all your comments to heart.
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Which muffins have you been buying? Which aren't selling as well as they used to?
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What fresh ingredients are available now? What high quality frozen fruit can we bring in if necessary?
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What is a good balance of flavours each day? How about throughout the week? We can't have Banana muffins every day after all. Can't have all our muffins with nuts in them either, for the people with allergies.
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What are classic flavours that will make you feel warm and cozy this winter? What are some new flavour combinations that will give you a sense of adventure when you need it?
All this comes together into a single long list of potential Orange Boot Muffins. Then the real fun begins -- test baking! Cindy is laughing a lot as we make tiny batches of 9-12 muffins. Recipes that call for 1 egg or 1/2 tsp vanilla. It's been a long time since we've used a single egg in a recipe!
We test everything. What size scoop makes the right size muffin? How hot is the oven? How long does it bake? Does the muffin look nice? How does it keep? And most importantly, how does it taste?
Once we find a muffin we like, we still have lots to do, including sourcing ingredients in larger quantities (it's surprising how quick we can go through a pail of Saskatoons!), deciding what day to make them for you, scaling up the recipes for Heather to mix and my favourite thing, what to call them! Only then can we make up the tags, fix the chalkboard and website, and finally put the new muffins in the display case for you.
You can expect to see some changes in our muffin lineup throughout November. Don't worry, there will be a mix of old favourites and new flavours.We'll be updating the chalkboard as we go, but if you simply must know before you come to the bakery, please give us a call at 584-BOOT and we'll help you out!