I have had a hard time finding exact matches to compare baked goods. It seems companies will add one different element to stand out and it makes a straight across comparison difficult. I finally found these two mixes for lemon poppy seed muffins from Sticky Fingers and Betty Crocker. Of course Betty crocker has this mix because they have one of everything and they’re all pretty mediocre. As for Sticky Fingers, we have only tried their scones and I really enjoyed them. We do have to address the elephant in the room, Betty Crocker included streusel to top their muffins. I will do my best to look past this but we all know that streusel makes even a shitty muffin taste better.
To start out, Sticky Fingers only calls for water to be added to the mix. Betty Crocker calls for oil, water, and eggs. It’s really interesting to me how these mixes can call for such different ingredients to be added and still produce the same baked good. When adding the powdered mixes I found that the Sticky Fingers mix was more yellow in color and Betty Crocker’s was white. Then after mixing everything together, Betty Crockers batter was more yellow than Sticky Fingers because of those egg yolks.
Despite the packaging discouraging me not to, I tasted both batters. The Betty Crocker batter tasted like lemon pledge. It was very fake and chemically in flavor. The Sticky Fingers batter was much more subtle and didn’t taste artificial but didn’t really taste like lemon either.
Using a 3 tbsp sized scoop to scoop out all of the muffins, I got 12 muffins exactly from both mixes which is what they both claimed. I was impressed that we weren’t shorted any batter from either company. The streusel for the Betty Crocker mix came prepared and I sprinkled it on top of the muffin batter before baking.
Each box calls for 400°F. Sticky fingers called for 13-16 minutes of bake time and I found them to be baked at 13 minutes, I am thrilled to find an accurate bake time. On the other hand, Betty called for 15-20 minutes and at 12 minutes I found them cooked. Unfortunately, I have come to expect all Betty Crocker mixes to provide a bake time that is too long. Never trust the listed bake time.
Once baked, the Betty Crocker remained the more yellow looking muffin. Both mixes browned evenly on the outside and the consistency was about the same. The sticky fingers were a little more crummy and falling apart as you peeled off the paper whereas the Betty Crocker muffin stayed packed together. But overall, the mouth feel was the same.
As for flavor, I didn’t get any lemon flavor from the sticky fingers muffin. It was underwhelming to say the least. And then on the complete other end of the spectrum, Betty Crocker used too much fake lemon flavoring that they still tasted like cleaning products to me. As is, I don’t want to rebuy either of these mixes. I did enjoy the streusel on top of the Betty crocker muffins, it was sweet and added a different texture that I liked. Like I said, streusel makes even a bad muffin decent. So I only slightly preferred the Betty Crocker muffins. But I think if I were to remake the sticky fingers muffins I would replace half or all of the water with lemon juice. Fresh squeezed would be best but just store bought lemon juice would be much better than the recipe as is. I think with that quick swap, Sticky Fingers muffins could be really good but I don’t appreciate buying a lemon muffin mix that comes out without any lemon flavoring.
Overall I’m disappointed. I think you’re better off going homemade in this case scenario. Both box mixes fell short and I paid $3 and $6 for these mixes with Sticky Fingers being priced higher. I did find the Sticky Fingers mix at World Market which is a more expensive store than the Walmart I bought the Betty Crocker mix from. Regardless of the price, these muffin mixes were a waste of money and I hope to see other brand releasing a lemon poppy seed muffin mix so there is a brand worth buying.
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