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One Egg Muffins
1 1/2 cups flour 3 teaspoons baking powder 2 tablespoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk 1 egg 2 tablespoons melted shortening Measure, mix and sift dry ingredients; add milk, beaten egg and melted shortening; beat vigorously. Half fill well greased muffin tins and bake in hot oven 25 minutes. Makes 9.
A plain quick-bread muffin of the sort that anchored breakfast in menu books of the period. Two instructions need translating: the oven and the beating.
- Hot ovenRead "hot oven" as roughly 400-425F. At that heat the batter sets quickly.
- Beat vigorouslyThis is the one line to ignore. Vigorous beating develops gluten and gives muffins tunnels and a rubbery crumb; stir only until the flour is dampened and the batter still looks lumpy.
- Baking timeTwenty-five minutes is long for half-filled cups at 425F. Start checking at 15 minutes, and take them out when a pick comes out clean and the tops are set and lightly browned.
- ShorteningIn this period shortening meant lard or a hydrogenated vegetable fat. Melted butter or a neutral oil gives the same result; measure it melted, as directed, and let it cool slightly so it does not cook the egg.
- Filling the tinsHalf full suits the smaller pressed-tin cups of the day. In a standard modern 12-cup pan the batter fills about nine cups roughly halfway, as the yield states.
- LeaveningThree teaspoons of baking powder to 1 1/2 cups flour is on the generous side by current practice. It works, but you may prefer to reduce it slightly.
- ServingNine muffins, best within an hour of baking. They stale quickly, having little fat and only one egg to hold moisture.