Review of Dr. Oetker Organic Apple Cinnamon Muffin Mix

 Everyone it seems loves a good muffin. And why not? They are warm, taste great and they give you that great carb treat without being too sweet. But…the muffins we see at the local stores have God knows what in them and we don’t always have enough time for scratch baking. So we purchased a box or Dr. Oetker’s Organic Apple Cinnamon Muffin Mix to see if this is a possible solution.

 Well, first things first, the box predominately displays the USDA Organic Label in the front and on the rear we learn that the product is certified organic by QAI. So OK, the stuff is truly organic (remember not to be fooled by “All Natural” Labels..these is not the same as Certified Organic).

 Next, the ingredients are mostly organic but we did notice “natural flavors”. We’re not a big fan of these ingredients not only because they’re non-organic but also because, in our opinion, some manufacturers overuse these to the point of the product being obnoxiously flavorful like much of the “conventional” foods seems to be. Nutritionally, not too bad with per muffin stats of 120 Calories, 16 g of Sugars and 2g of Protein (click here for detailed ingredient & nutritional info).

 OK, so we opened the bag and this cloud of flour-like powder bursts forth. Very finely sifted..that’s good. Well, we put this in a bowl and added the other ingredients (1 cup milk, 1 egg & 2 Tablespoons of Oil…needless to say we used organic ingredients). Now we just placed these added ingredients on top of the mix and then used a large whisk to blend. They blended very easily and the resulting batter had a nice smooth consistency. ..this, we like.

 Then we greased the muffin pan (using organic butter of course) and filled every segment to 3/4 full per the directions. As it turned out, we used only 11 of the 12 muffin segments in the pan. The box said we’d use all 12. But maybe we overfilled the others a bit, who knows? But anyway, I like large, over-sized muffins so this is no problem.

 In the oven that had been preheated to 475F for 17 minutes. The box said to go 16-18 minutes so we just split the difference, anyway our oven is new and tends to be spot-on with temperature so we thought this wouldn’t be a problem…(think again..).

  After about 10 minutes the kitchen starts to really smell good, and I mean really good. We start boiling the water for tea. Well after the 17 minutes we take the muffins out and are a bit surprised to see that they didn’t really rise that impressively…huh.. AND, they look a bit overdone, maybe almost burnt …huuh.

 We let them cool for the 5 min in the pan per the directions and then took them out and onto the cooling rack. Well, the sides were somewhat burnt but not totally black. Now where the rubber meets the road as it were..Taste. They were,                 ok. Not great, but                 ok… Talk about a letdown.

 Now, you may ask, why is an “ok” muffin not acceptable? Well, the major thing is that they have to be exceptional or at least great or they’re not worth the trouble. Think about it (we did)… purchasing (but this wasn’t really a hassle since we were in the grocery store anyway), mixing, baking and the worse.. cleaning up. But I have to tell you, the Good Doctor got back at me for not loving his muffins..when I crushed the box during cleanup a fresh puff of flour-like dust shot up and got me right in the kisser. thanks doc.

 So all in all, they were easy to put together (the fine sifting while a potential dust issue really worked well) and they smelled incredible. However, the directions overstated cooking time (we stand by this as our oven has been tried and true even though new) and the taste was..ya know..just ok. Definitely not worth the work of prep and cleanup. Sooo, for this particular product at least, we really can’t get excited about it. Maybe if I’m selling the house and need a really good home smell but other than that, I don’t think so.

 Maybe you want to see for yourself. In either case, try new things, even if they all don’t work out famously, and as always, live naturally.