Hit and Miss

Do you have a lot of cookbooks? Does your bookshelf runneth over? What makes you buy a particular cookbook over another? Is it one recipe that catches your eye? Is it the subject matter or focus? Or is it the photography? I recently borrowed a new cookbook from a friend and I'm kinda picking and choosing some recipes to try. The first two didn't go so well. It being October, I thought I'd try making a pumpkin muffin from this cookbook.

I'm pretty good at following recipes as written. I try and give the author a chance to make the recipe as she or he intended the first time around. This recipe is a basic muffin recipe with a crumb topping. Now I had a choice to use paper liners or just grease the muffin tin. Not having liners, I went with the grease.

That may have been one of my issues since the crumb topping adhered more to the pan instead of settling into the muffin. However the delicacy of the topping made it nearly impossible to eat all at the same time.

The topping basically came off in one piece. That's no damn fun. Not to mention the muffin itself is pretty dense. Do I try making this recipe again with the liners? Or do I move onto the next recipe in the cookbook and give it one more chance?