What to do with crumbled muffins?

Question

I made some muffins that apparently didn't have enough liquid to stick together (perhaps substituting Greek yogurt for sour cream was not such a good idea, as that, butter, and an egg contributed the only liquid). So the muffins crumbled completely on leaving the greased tin. Are there any culinary uses for them, or am I stuck trying to eat the big chunks and throw the rest out? They are so crumbly that packing them to the office for breakfast like I usually do won't work.

The specific ones I made are cinnamon coffee cake flavored, but I'd be curious about the general case.

Asked by justkt

Answer

Since it sounds like they are basically a dried out batter at this point, I would turn to implementations that rely on those kind of food-stuffs;

• With some further baking and possibly additional brown sugar and butter or apple-sauce, I would use them for a crumble topping. If they are coffee and cinnamon an apple-cardamom cobbler would benefit nicely.
• The crumbles could be incorporated into a biscuit batter recipe
• In all likelihood, any kind of recipe that relies on a granola could probably be referenced for further ideas.
• You could also use the crumble as a stand-in for oat based no-bakes. The no-bakes might feel mealy to the tooth, so not entirely eliminating the oat might work best.

If you wanted to repurpose, you might try thinking of it as a material to be suspended. With an ingredient like well-blended coconut butter (not to be confused with coconut oil or milk or cream) you could create a base with which to make a kind of post-raw bar cookie (basically press and chill the coconut butter in a pan on top of wax/parchment paper, pulse the muffin bits with some dates or brown rice syrup, and once the butter sets press the bits/dates mixture into the top and drizzle with some ganache or whatever).

Answered by mfg

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