My friend Julee doesn’t like muffins. Like, not at all. Please know, before you start judging the crap outta my friend, Julee, she is one of the greatest human beings of all time. She is an academic support specialist at the school I work at. Her office is right next to mine. We share a love of 90s hip hop, cheese, fried food and Tracee Ellis Ross. She’s also my editor on all things including, but not limited to, Huffington Post blog entries, letters to parents, emails to colleagues and my husband’s CV. There’s literally nothing I wouldn’t do for her. So imagine my surprise when I texted her one afternoon, wondering if she was into muffins. I mean, I assumed she would say, ‘Of course!’, but nope! She said ‘no’. What the whaaaaaat? I mean, I’ve met some weirdos in my day (I went to social work school with a girl who hated soup. Who hates soup!? Its soup!). But not liking muffins? That’s crazy talk (the actual conversation, including appropriate Bitmoji, is shown below). So obviously, I mean, challenge accepted.

My oldest and I will often spend one afternoon after school doing some baking. In order to make sure we do not eat all the baked goods from our session, I bring the majority of what we baked to work with me the next day. So one day a few weeks ago I brought in Danielle Oron’s Tahini Chocolate Chip cookies. Upon eating them, Julee dubbed them the greatest thing I’ve ever made (I should clarify that she was already one of my favorite people when she said that but upon hearing her praise, the deal was sealed on her being in the Top 3 Greatest People of All Time). So when she saved my butt one morning last week when I was running late because of kid issues and helped proctor a test that I was supposed to proctor, I promised her I would bake her whatever she wanted. So she asked for the cookies. I said I would make them but then the whole muffin exchange happened and well, this recipe was born. I figured, why not take the flavor profile of the cookies and make them into delicious muffins? She’ll love them!

So was she a fan? Well, she liked them enough to eat one, smile and say, “Ok, I like these”, but not enough to take home the entire box I brought for her. But my girl, Cheryl? Cheryl loved them! YAY, Cheryl!!! Also, so did my entire family and every other normal human being. Sorry, Jules. I guess you can’t win them all.