I make this recipe for muffins all the time but the last batch something went wrong - they have a nasty bitter taste. Not all muffins in the batch, but some… more on one side than the other.
I’m thinking something went wrong with the mixing of the baking soda or the baking powder (the recipe calls for both). There is also bananas and sour cream in the recipe. Any thoughts??
“… more on one side than the other.”
That makes me wonder if the pan itself or possibly whatever you used to lube it was contaminated with something.
Yeah, a bitter taste makes me think maybe some soap or other cleaner residue left behind?
Too much baking soda can leave a bitter, almost metallic taste for sure.
My thought was along the lines of @Folly’s - I have definitely noticed the issue with an excess of baking soda leaving a metallic aftertaste, and it was in fact my first thought. Especially because with muffins specifically, using the muffin method, excessive stirring is strongly discouraged, which can lead to poor distribution if you minimize stirring.
Another possibility, leaving out stirring (and one that happened to me in the past) is that I accidently left a dusting of baking soda on the muffin tin which was adjacent to my mixing bowl. A little white dusting which at the time I assumed was a bit of flour slop, but was most evidently not.
Oh, your talking about culinary muffins, never mind then.
Baking powder and soda may clump up and not mix well. I had a similar problem with a a pan of corn bread that turned out to have baking powder clumps end up in just a portion of if.
Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin?
Do you have a cat? Does your cat ever use other pans besides his litter pan to do his business?
Did you sift the baking soda and baking powder with the flour? It sounds like it wasn’t evenly distributed.
Right there is why although I love to cook, I don’t like baking.
It’s not difficult to improvise a quick sifter using a small strainer, or to make visually sure the baking powder/soda isn’t clumping in one area of the batter. No special prowess needed.
I have never in my life sifted and never had problems with baking.
I shudder to think of sifting, yet I spent an hour working my crushed fresh tomatoes through a chinois the other day while making gazpacho. Life is good.
Particularly if you’re using baking soda with aluminum, which is common. I use Rumford, which is aluminum-free.
I’ve never heard of “baking soda with aluminum”. So far as I know, “baking soda” always and only means sodium hydrogen carbonate. Baking powder (which is baking soda mixed with some sort of dry acid), maybe.
But yeah, insufficiently-mixed baking soda or soap residue on the pan could either one result in a bitter flavor in some muffins.
Absolutely right. My brain was elsewhere. Baking powder, on the other hand, often does contain aluminum.
“What The Hell Happened To My Muffins?” would be a good title for a memoir.
I keep mentally hearing it said in the most dramatic way possible.
WHAT the HELL HAPPENED to my MUFFINS!?!? 
