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 maphula, a 'cake baked on a hearth or griddle', or from Old French mou-pain 'soft bread', which may have been altered into mouffin.
[ Notes and Queries: Medium of Inter-Communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc., Volume 1, Oxford University Press, 1850. p. 253.] The word is first found in print in 1703, spelled
;
[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] it is of uncertain origin but possibly derived from the Low German Muffen, the plural of Muffe, meaning 'small cake', or possibly with some connection to the Old French moufflet meaning 'soft', as said of bread.
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."
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Quickbread muffins
Quickbread muffins (sometimes described in Britain as "American muffins"[ American muffins at cakebaker.co.uk; retrieved 3 Sept 2017]) are baked, individual-sized, cupcake-shaped foods with a "moist, coarse-grained" texture.[Wrigley, Colin W; Corke, Harold; Seetharaman, Koushik; Faubion, Jonathan. Encyclopedia of Food Grains. Academic Press, 2015. p. 33-34] 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."
History
Recipes for quickbread muffins are common in 19th-century American cookbooks.
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.
Manufacture
Quickbread muffins are made with flour, sieved together with bicarbonate of soda as a Leavening 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).
Bran muffins
Bran muffins use less flour and use bran instead, as well as using molasses and brown sugar.
Poppyseed muffins
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. 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,
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."[
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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.[
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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".
In 2018, McDonald's restaurant announced they were planning to sell muffin tops as part of their McCafe breakfast menu.
Bakeware and baking aids
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
A variety of sizes for muffin cases are available. Slightly different sizes are considered "standard" in different countries. Miniature cases are commonly in diameter at the base and tall. Standard-size cases range from in diameter at the base and are 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.
===Gallery of quickbread muffin flavors===
muffin, a common flavor]]
As symbols
American muffins appear as state symbols in three US states:
See also
