Muffin

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Three flavors of muffin: blueberry, chocolate, and chocolate chip.


A muffin is a type of individual-sized baked good. It is often a small, sweet quickbread or cake in a cup-shaped container. It may be named for additional ingredients, e.g., "blueberry muffin".

While quickbread "American" muffins are often sweetened, there are savory varieties made with ingredients such as cornbread muffins and cheese muffins, and less sweet varieties such as traditional bran muffins. The quickbread muffin originated in North America during the 19th century.

Etymology

One 19th-century source suggests that muffin may be related to the Greek bread Template:Lang, a 'cake baked on a hearth or griddle', or from Old French Template:Lang 'soft bread', which may have been altered into Template:Lang.<ref>Notes and Queries: Medium of Inter-Communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc., Volume 1, Oxford University Press, 1850. p. 253.</ref> The word is first found in print in 1703, spelled Template:Not a typo;<ref name=Thorseby>R. Thoresby in a letter dated 27 Apr. 1703 and quoted by J. Ray in 1848. vide: The correspondence of J. Ray, consisting of selections from the philosophical letters published by Dr. Derham and original letters of J. Ray in the collection of the British Museum (1848) p. 425</ref> it is of uncertain origin but possibly derived from the Low German Template:Lang, the plural of Template:Lang, meaning 'small cake', or possibly with some connection to the Old French Template:Lang meaning 'soft', as said of bread.<ref name="oed">Template:Cite OED</ref><ref name=Harper>Template:Cite web</ref> The expression muffin-man, meaning a street seller of muffins, is attested in a 1754 poem, which includes the line: "Hark! the shrill Muffin-Man his Carol plies."<ref name=Harper/>

Quickbread muffins

Template:Infobox food Quickbread muffins (sometimes described in Britain as "American muffins"<ref name="AM">American muffins at cakebaker.co.uk; retrieved 3 Sept 2017</ref>) are baked, individual-sized, cupcake-shaped foods with a "moist, coarse-grained" texture.<ref name="WCSF">Wrigley, Colin W; Corke, Harold; Seetharaman, Koushik; Faubion, Jonathan. Encyclopedia of Food Grains. Academic Press, 2015. p. 33-34</ref> Muffins are available in both savoury varieties, such as cornmeal and cheese muffins, or sweet varieties such as blueberry, chocolate chip, lemon or banana flavours. Sweetened muffins range from lightly sweetened muffins to products that are "richer than many cakes in fat and sugar."<ref name="WCSF" /> They are similar to cupcakes in size and cooking methods, the main difference being that cupcakes tend to be sweet desserts using cake batter, often topped with sugar icing (American frosting). Muffins may have solid items mixed into the batter, such as berries, chocolate chips or nuts. Fresh baked muffins are sold by bakeries, donut shops and some fast food restaurants and coffeehouses. Factory-baked muffins are sold at grocery stores and convenience stores, and are served in some coffee shops and cafeterias.

History

Recipes for quickbread muffins are common in 19th-century American cookbooks.<ref name="Lettice">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="beecher">Template:Cite book</ref> Recipes for yeast-based muffins, which were sometimes called "common muffins" or "wheat muffins" in 19th-century American cookbooks, can be found in much older cookbooks. In Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, she gave recipes for both quick bread muffins and English muffins.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Over the years, the size and calorie content of muffins has changed: the 3-inch muffins grandmother made had only 120 to 160 calories. But today's giant bakery muffins contain from 340 to 630 calories each.<ref name="nbc">Template:Cite web</ref>

Manufacture

Quickbread muffins are made with flour, sieved together with bicarbonate of soda as a raising agent. To this is added butter or shortening, eggs and any flavourings (fruit, such as blueberries, chocolate or banana; or savouries, such as cheese).

Commercial muffins may have "modified starches", corn syrup (or high-fructose corn syrup), xanthan gum, or guar gum to increase moisture content and lengthen shelf life (these gums can also make added solids, such as chocolate chips, disperse more evenly in the batter).<ref name="WCSF" />

Bran muffins

Oat bran muffins

Bran muffins use less flour and use bran instead, as well as using molasses and brown sugar.<ref name="WCSF" /> The mix is turned into a pocketed muffin tray, or into individual paper moulds, and baked in an oven. Milk is often added, as it contributes to the appealing browning appearance.<ref name="WCSF" /> The result are raised, individual quickbreads.<ref name="AM" /> The muffin may have toppings added, such as cinnamon sugar, streusel,<ref name="WCSF" /> nuts, or chocolate chips.

Poppyseed muffins

Poppyseed muffins on a plate

Poppyseed muffins (or poppy seed muffins) contain poppy seeds. Poppy seeds were already popular in most parts of the world for their taste and texture—as well as the narcotic characteristics of the opium poppy plant they are harvested from. In modern times, growing poppy seeds is a difficult business for American farmers, due to the risk of heroin—which is derived from poppies—being produced.Template:Citation needed Other countries have fewer difficulties with permitting the growth of poppies for the seeds alone, which have very low (but not zero) levels of opium alkaloids, such as morphine. As other countries began imitating the American muffin, the occasional use of poppy seeds to flavor them spread as well. Although poppy seeds cannot be used as a narcotic due to very low levels of opium alkaloids,<ref name="erowid">Template:Cite web</ref> they do have enough that drug tests often report false positives after a drug-free person eats a few poppyseed muffins.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In one reported case the UAE jailed a man for four years after poppy seeds from a roll he had eaten at an airport were found on his clothes.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Lemon is commonly paired with poppyseeds in muffin-making.

Nutrition

Harvard University's Nutrition Source states that while many fruit muffins may seem "...to be a better breakfast than their donut neighbors" at your local coffeeshop, with their "...often refined flours, high sodium, and plenty of added sugar...and large portion size, they're far from the optimal food choice to start your day."<ref name=Makeover>Template:Cite web</ref> Consumers think that commercial muffins are a healthier choice than donuts; however, according to Registered Dietician Karen Collins, yeast or raised donuts have from 170 to 270 calories each (cake doughnuts have from 290 to 360 calories), while large bakery muffins have from 340 to 630 calories each and 11 to 27 grams of total fat.<ref name="nbc" /> "Most muffins are deceptively high in fats", with up to 40% fat content, which many consumers are not aware of.<ref name=WCSF/>

The type of muffin can have a big impact on its fat and sugar content; one major fast food chain's low-fat berry muffin has 300 calories, whereas the same restaurant's chocolate chunk muffin has 620 calories.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Harvard's Nutrition Source recommends smaller-sized, whole-grain muffins with reduced sugar content, liquid plant oil instead of shortening or butter, and added wholesome foods such as nuts (or nut flour), beans (or bean flour), or fresh fruit or vegetables.<ref name=Makeover/>

Muffin tops

The muffin top is the crisp upper part of the muffin, which has developed a "browned crust that's slightly singed around the edges".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> They were the focus of a 1997 Seinfeld sitcom episode, "The Muffin Tops" (episode 21 of season 8), where the character Elaine, who only eats the tops when she buys a muffin, realizes that a bakery selling just the tops could be successful. Once the business is running, she has to figure out what to do with the muffin bottoms, which proves difficult.

In 2018, McDonald's restaurant announced they were planning to sell muffin tops as part of their McCafe breakfast menu.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Bakeware and baking aids

A typical muffin pan

Muffin tins and muffin pans are typically metal bakeware which has round bowl-shaped depressions into which muffin batter is poured. Muffin tins or pans can be greased with butter or cooking spray, to lessen the issue of batter sticking to the pan. Alternatively, muffin cups or cases are used. Cups or cases are usually round sheets of foil, or silicone<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with scallop-pressed edges, giving the muffin a round cup shape. They are used in the baking of muffins to line the bottoms of muffin tins, to facilitate the easy removal of the finished muffin from the tin. The advantage to cooks is easier removal and cleanup, more precise form, and moister muffins; however, using them will prevent a crust from forming.

A variety of sizes for muffin cases are available. Slightly different sizes are considered "standard" in different countries. Miniature cases are commonly Template:Convert in diameter at the base and Template:Convert tall. Standard-size cases range from Template:Convert in diameter at the base and are Template:Convert tall. Some jumbo-size cases can hold more than twice the capacity of standard cases. Australian and Swedish bakers are accustomed to taller paper cases with a larger diameter at the top than American and British bakers.<ref name="Smith2010">Template:Cite book</ref>

As symbols

American muffins appear as state symbols in three US states:

See also

References

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