Muffin

“ The incident set me upon considering the nature of the muffin, and opened to me a large field of speculation, culinary and historical. I first perceived that there were combined in the greasy accompaniment of our tea-tables characters so diverse, that it must have a history, and an eventful one; that it must have undergone vicissitude and persecution in the course of its wide career, the range of which in space and time could not be doubtful, from the place in which I found it. ”

“ His idea of how to eat muffins was a little sketchy, but otherwise be behaved charmingly. But, as the Babe said, to put pieces of half-masticated muffin on the carpet while you drink your tea, is a thing seldom, if ever, done in the best houses.{58}
Ealing himself eschewed muffin on the ground of its being “bad training,” and the Babe, who held peculiar views on training, proceeded to express them.
“One does every thing best,” he said, “when one is most content. Personally I am most content when I have eaten a large lunch. Nobody could play Rugger in the morning. ”

“ Raised Muffins
1 cup scalded milk
1 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons butter
1⁄4 cup sugar
3⁄4 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 yeast cake
1 egg
4 cups flour Add butter, sugar, and salt to milk and water; when lukewarm, add yeast cake, and when dissolved, egg well beaten, and flour; beat thoroughly, cover, and let rise over night. In morning, fill buttered muffin rings two-thirds full; let rise until rings are full, and bake thirty minutes in hot oven.
66 Grilled Muffins Put buttered muffin rings on a hot greased griddle. ”

“ Drop into each of 12 greased medium muffin cups 1⁄2 tbsp. butter, 1⁄2 tbsp. brown sugar, 2 or 3 pecan halves. Fold 1 cup cut-up dates into Muffin batter (p. 2) . Spoon into prepared muffin cups. Bake.
BACON-CHEESE MUFFINS
Make Muffin batter (p. 2) —except fold in 2 tbsp. crisp, cooked diced bacon and 1⁄2 cup grated, sharp, yellow cheese. Bake.
PRUNE, APRICOT, OR PINEAPPLE COFFEE CAKE
Make Coffee Cake batter (p. 2) —except sprinkle 2 tbsp. melted butter and 1⁄4 cup white or brown sugar over batter (for prune topping, use 3⁄4 tsp. cinnamon) . ”

“ Have ready a frying-pan two-thirds full of boiling salted water, allowing one-half tablespoon salt to one quart of water. Put two or three buttered muffin rings in the water. Break each egg separately into a saucer, and carefully slip into a muffin ring. The water should cover the eggs. When there is a film over the top, and the white is firm, carefully remove with a buttered skimmer to circular pieces of buttered toast, and let each person season his own egg with butter, salt, and pepper. ”

“ Cream Muffins.—One quart rich milk, or, if you can get it, half cream and half milk; one quart of flour heaping, six eggs, one table-spoonful of butter, one of lard; softened together. Beat whites and yelks separately very light; then add flour and shortening and a scant teaspoonful of salt, and stir in the flour the last thing, lightly as possible, and have the batter free from lumps. Half fill your well-buttered muffin-rings, and bake immediately in a hot oven, or your muffins will not be good. ”

“ Beat four eggs very light; and when the milk is cold, stir them into it, alternately with the meal, a little at a time, of each. Add the salt. Beat the whole very hard after it is all mixed. Then butter some muffin-rings on the inside. Set them in a hot oven, or on a heated griddle; pour some of the batter into each; and bake the muffins well. Send them hot to table, continuing to bake while a fresh supply is wanted. Pull them open with your fingers, and eat them with butter, to which you may add molasses or honey. ”

“ DROP BATTERS.—All batters can be stirred with a spoon. Drop batters are somewhat stiffer than pour batters. They contain, approximately, two parts of flour to one part of moisture. Compare the Plain Muffin recipe below with that for Popovers. Note how the recipes differ in the quantity of flour used. Why do muffins contain baking powder, while popovers do not? Muffin mixture is a typical drop batter.
PLAIN MUFFINS 2 cupfuls flour 3 1/2 teaspoonfuls baking powder 1/2 teaspoonful salt 2 tablespoonfuls fat 1 to 2 tablespoonfuls sugar 1 egg 1 cupful milk
Break the egg into a mixing bowl, beat it. ”

“ Now beat, beat, beat with a big spoon and plenty of muscle, for the success and puffiness of your puffs depend largely on the amount of energy expended on them.
Whisk the whites of two eggs to a stiff froth. Beat the whites of two and yolks of three together, very light, and beat them into the batter, the frothed whites last.
Have your muffin-cups hot and well buttered. Pour in the mixture, and bake twenty to twenty-five minutes in a quick oven. Serve the moment they are up to the top of the cups and a nice brown color, otherwise they will fall and grow sodden. ”

“ Follow the directions for Plain Muffins as given above, adding 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 of a cup of cold cooked rice or oatmeal to the batter before pouring it into the muffin-pans.
BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
DIRECTIONS
"Cream" the butter in a mixing-bowl. Add the sugar, and "cream" again. Beat the egg in a small bowl, and stir one-half of it only (about 2 tablespoons) into the butter and sugar. ”

“ Take one cup of the potato sponge, one well-beaten egg, one tablespoonful of shortening, and one half teaspoonful of salt. Beat together with a knife till it is smooth, and then add rye flour till it is a soft dough, too thick to pour but too thin to handle. Put it in the ice box, and one hour before they are to be cooked take it out and set in a warm place to rise. Grease a cold griddle and muffin rings, half fill the rings with the dough, and set the griddle over a moderate fire. As the griddle heats the muffins will rise and be well risen when they begin to bake. ”

“ Strain through double cheesecloth, add tapioca drained from water and rinsed. Reheat and serve in bouillon cups. A bit of
Red coloring may be added to intensify the color.
CREAM MUFFINS Sift together
2 cups pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar and
1⁄2 teaspoon salt.
With fingers rub in
1⁄4 cup butter or margarine, add
2 eggs well beaten and
7/8 cup thin cream.
Mix thoroughly, pour into greased muffin pans or small fancy shaped tins and bake 12 minutes at 400 degrees F., and 5 minutes at 450 degrees F. Makes 16 small muffins. ”

“ Make a better of one-half cup flour, one teaspoon baking powder, one-fourth cup salt, a few grains pepper, one egg well beaten, and one-fourth cup milk. Add brains, and drop mixture by spoonfuls into greased muffin rings, placed in a frying-pan in which there is a generous supply of hot lard. Cook on one side until well browned, turn, and cook other side. ”

“ Muff, muf, n. a stupid fellow.—v.t. and v.i. to perform awkwardly, spoil: to act clumsily, esp. in letting a ball slip out of the hands. [Prob. related to Dut. muffen, to dote; Ger. muffen, to sulk.]
Muffin, muf′in, n. a soft, light, spongy cake, eaten hot with butter: a small plate: one who dangles after a young woman: a poor ball-player.—ns. Muff′in-cap, a round flat cap for men; Muffineer′, a dish for keeping muffins hot: a metal cruet for sprinkling salt or sugar on muffins.
Muffle, muf′l, n. the thick naked upper lip and nose, as of a ruminant. ”

“ When light enough, see that the hot plate is hot, and then carefully transfer the muffins from the tray, one at a time, using a thin tin slice for the purpose, taking particular care not to knock out the proof, or the muffins will be spoilt. When they have been properly cooked on one side, turn over with the slice and cook the other side. When the muffins are done brush off the flour, and lay them on a clean cloth or sieve to cool. ”

“ The middle charmer poured out the souchong, and handed me the buttered muffins; and such buttered muffins never were spread on the other side of the Atlantic. The butter had an aromatic flavor; by Jove, it was perfectly delicious.
And there they sat—the charmers, I mean—eating these buttered muffins in plain sight. I wished I was a buttered muffin myself. Every minute they grew handsomer and handsomer; and I could not help thinking what a fine thing it would be to carry home a beautiful English wife! how my friends would stare! a lady from England! ”

“ The muffins are bought of the bakers, and at prices to leave a profit of 4d. in 1s. Some bakers give thirteen to the dozen to the street-sellers whom they know. The muffin-man carries his delicacies in a basket, wherein they are well swathed in flannel, to retain the heat: “People likes them warm, sir,” an old man told me, “to satisfy them they’re fresh, and they almost always are fresh; but it can’t matter so much about their being warm, as they have to be toasted again. I only wish good butter was a sight cheaper, and that would make the muffins go. Butter’s half the battle.” ”