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One Egg Muffins II
2 cups flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons sugar 1 cup milk 2 tablespoons melted butter 1 egg Mix and bake as One Egg Muffin I.
Berry Muffins I (without eggs) 2 cups flour 1/4 cup sugar 4 teaspoons baking powder 2 tablespoon butter 1 cup milk (scant) 1 cup berries 1/2 teaspoon salt Mix and sift dry ingredients; work in butter with tips of fingers; add milk and berries.
A plain one-egg muffin batter of the sort that filled the quick-bread chapter of every early twentieth-century cookbook. The instructions point back to an earlier entry, so a few working details need filling in.
- Baking powderFour teaspoons to two cups of flour is roughly double what a modern recipe calls for. Period baking powders were generally single-acting, whether cream of tartar, phosphate or alum types; with today's double-acting powder, 2 to 2 1/2 teaspoons gives comparable lift and less risk of an off, chemical aftertaste.
- Mixing methodThe ingredients imply the muffin method: whisk the dry ingredients, combine milk, melted butter and beaten egg separately, then combine the two. The referenced first recipe is not reproduced here, and period directions often called for brisk beating; modern practice is to fold only until barely moistened, leaving lumps, since beating until smooth develops gluten and gives tunnelled, tough muffins.
- OvenThe referenced method is not reproduced here, so no oven direction survives on this page. Bake at 400 to 425F for 20 to 25 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean and the tops are domed and browned.
- PanTwo cups of flour fills a standard 12-cup muffin tin about two-thirds full. Grease it well; paper liners were not yet in common use when this was written.
- Berry variationThe second formula omits the egg and rubs cold butter into the flour instead of melting it, which makes a shorter, more biscuit-like crumb. Toss the berries in a spoonful of the measured flour before folding them in so they do not sink or bleed.
- "1 cup milk (scant)"Scant means a little under a level cup — pour to just below the mark.
- BerriesBlueberries, huckleberries or raspberries all suit. Frozen berries work if folded in still frozen and the bake is extended by about five minutes.
- YieldRoughly twelve medium muffins from either batter. They are at their best within an hour of leaving the oven and stale quickly.