I'm putting my muffin experiment on hold because this past weekend's batch of muffins was so awful that I can no longer maintain my enthusiasm for this project. I'm just going to work my way through all the Superhero muffins in Elyse Kopecky and Shalane Flanagan's cookbooks — there are a lot. The ones I've made so far have been delicious. And they're exactly what I'm looking for in terms of pre-workout and/or recovery foods.

I toyed with whether or not I should even bother to write about this particular batch — blueberry macaroons muffins — let alone include the recipe. I've decided to write down some thoughts, but leave out the recipe — you can look for it yourself, and as I didn't change anything, there isn't really any reason for me to recreate it here.

Not all recipes on the Internet are terrible, of course. A lot of "food bloggers" do what I precisely have not: workshop their recipes over and over until they really are dialed in. They have other people bake the recipe: to make sure the instructions are clear and that the process (and outcome) is replicable. There's a terrific amount of work that goes into recipe development — and then cookbook development on top of that. But some days it feels like "food bloggers" are better at taking pretty photos — important! don't get me wrong — than they are at developing delicious food.

One of the downsides, of course, of investing a lot of time and energy into recipe development is that you end up with a lot of food that's not great. You can eat it, share it, or trash it. I know I'm reluctant to do the latter. And sadly, this latest batch of disaster muffins — so stodgy, holy shit, oat flour is solid — made 21. I cannot bear to spend the next 3 weeks eating these.

I already had plans to make a batch of savory superhero muffins this weekend; now I have to decide if I'll bake a batch of sweet ones too. Because ugh. Blueberry Maca Muffins. You're terrible.