Corn Muffins
1 cup lukewarm skim milk 1 cake compressed yeast 1 1/2 cups sifted bread flour 2/3 cup of a lardlike vegetable shortening 1/4 cup sugar 1 egg 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 1/2 cups cornmeal Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk, add the bread flour, and beat well. Set in a warm place to rise. Cream together the shortening and the sugar, add the egg, and beat till light and stiff. When the sponge is light, add this mixture to it, and also the salt and cornmeal. Beat well together. Fill muffin pans three fourths full of the mixture. Set in a warm place to rise, and allow to rise one-eighth inch, then bake.
A yeast-raised corn muffin rather than a baking-powder one, so the work is spread over two rises and the crumb comes out closer to bread than cake. The recipe gives no oven temperature and no yield, so both need supplying.
- The yeastOne cake of compressed (fresh) yeast is about 0.6 oz. Substitute one packet of active dry or instant yeast, roughly 2 1/4 teaspoons, which is the standard modern equivalent.
- Lukewarm milkAim for about 100-110F. Much hotter and the yeast will suffer; cold milk will slow the sponge noticeably.
- "A lardlike vegetable shortening"Period phrasing for hydrogenated vegetable fat of the Crisco type. Modern all-vegetable shortening works directly; softened butter gives better flavour, though the crumb may come out slightly less tender.
- Oven temperatureBake at 400F for 18-22 minutes, until the tops are set and browned. These are enriched with sugar and fat and will colour before the centre is done if pushed much hotter.
- The sponge stageThe milk, yeast and bread flour together make a slack batter, not a dough. Cover it and give it 45-60 minutes in a warm spot, until visibly bubbled and domed, before beating in the creamed mixture.
- CornmealUse fine or medium stone-ground yellow cornmeal, not coarse polenta grind and not self-rising cornmeal, which carries its own leavening and salt.
- The second riseLetting them rise only an eighth of an inch keeps the proof short. A corn-heavy batter has limited gluten structure, and over-proofed muffins can collapse in the oven. Twenty to thirty minutes in a warm kitchen is usually enough.
- YieldFilled three-quarters full, the batter should make about 12 standard muffins. They are best the day they are baked and reheat well.