I first made this pumpkin muffin recipe back in 1987 and have since made it many times over the years because it’s my children’s favorite muffin recipe. In a large bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. Divide half of the batter among 24 greased or paper-lined muffin cups. Drop filling by teaspoonfuls over batter.
Place a pecan on each muffin if desired. 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. The use of the term to describe what are essentially cupcakes or buns did not become common usage in Britain until the last decades of the 20th century on the back of the spread of coffee shops such as Starbucks. Recipes for quickbread muffins are common in 19th-century American cookbooks. Quickbread muffins are made with flour, sieved together with bicarbonate of soda as a raising agent. Bran muffins use less flour and use bran instead, as well as using molasses and brown sugar.
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. The result are raised, individual quickbreads. 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. 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 sugarand large portion size, they’re far from the optimal food choice to start your day. 300 calories, whereas the same restaurant’s chocolate chunk muffin has 620 calories. The muffin top is the crisp upper part of the muffin, which has developed a “browned crust that’s slightly singed around the edges”.
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. A variety of sizes for muffin cases are available. Slightly different sizes are considered “standard” in different countries. Miniature cases are commonly 1 to 1. Some jumbo-size cases can hold more than twice the size of standard cases.
It is of English or European origin. A Victorian-era muffin man ringing a bell. English muffins were first mentioned in literature in the early 18th century, although the product is undoubtedly older than that. In the Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson states that “here has always been some confusion between muffins, crumpets, and pikelets, both in recipes and in name. Colonial muffin made with hominy on a hanging griddle. Theses and other types of flatbread muffins were known to American settlers, but they declined in popularity with the advent of the quickbread muffin. Muffin rings are metal cookware used for oven-baking or griddle-cooking flatbread muffins.
They are circle-shaped objects made of thin metal. The rings are about one inch high. A Muffineer was originally a sugar shaker, looking like a large salt cellar with a perforated decorative top, for spreading powdered sugar on muffins and other sweet cakes. Later, in the 19th century, the term was also used to describe a silver, or silver-plated, muffin dish, with a domed lid and a compartment below for hot water, used to keep toasted English muffins warm before serving. The Muffin Man” is a traditional nursery rhyme, children’s song or children’s game of English origin from 1820.
A well-known reference to English muffins is in Oscar Wilde’s 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest. The corn muffin is the official state muffin of Massachusetts. The blueberry muffin is the official state muffin of Minnesota. The apple muffin is the official state muffin of New York. Look up muffin in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Notes and Queries: Medium of Inter-Communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. Volume 1, Oxford University Press, 1850.
