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Plain Muffins
I EGG, BEATEN LIGHT 2 CUPS FLOUR 1/2 TEASPOON SALT 4 TEASPOONS BAKING POWDER I CUP MILK (ABOUT) Cream fat, gradually add sugar, and cream together, add egg and beat only enough to mix. Mix and sift dry ingredients together, and add to egg mixture, alternately with milk. If it seems a little too thin do not use all of the milk. Drop by spoonfuls into well-buttered muffin tins until they are 2/3 full, then bake 30 minutes at 400°. Run a thin knife around sides of each muffin to separate from tin, and also use knife for lifting muffin out. Do not keep muffins in pan even in camp, unless they are pried loose and laid on their edges.
Blueberry, huckleberry, cranberry, and blackberry muffins can be easily made by using a teaspoon to fill pans, and scattering a layer of berries between each spoonful until pans are 2/3 full. (Cranberries and blackberries should be cut in halves.) But the following recipe will be better liked:
A straightforward creamed-fat muffin batter of the sort that filled camp reflector ovens and cast-iron gem pans. Two of the ingredients called for in the method never made it into the list, so some judgement is required before you start.
- Missing fat and sugarThe method opens by creaming fat with sugar, but neither appears among the measured ingredients. For 2 cups flour, contemporary plain muffin recipes of this type run about 2 to 4 tablespoons of fat (butter, lard or bacon drippings in camp) and 2 to 4 tablespoons of sugar. The original amounts cannot be recovered from the text, so treat any figure as your own choice rather than the author's.
- Baking timeThirty minutes at 400F will overshoot standard muffin tins badly; the tops darken and the crumb dries. Check at 18 minutes and expect 20 to 22 for a 2 1/2-inch cup. The longer time would suit deeper pans or the uneven heat of a camp oven, which is the setting the recipe assumes.
- Baking powder4 teaspoons to 2 cups flour is heavy by modern standards, where 2 to 3 teaspoons is usual. Early baking powders varied in strength from brand to brand. The full amount gives a coarse, open crumb and can leave a metallic edge.
- Milk "about"Hold back the last quarter cup as instructed. The batter should drop thickly from a spoon rather than pour.
- Do not overmix"Beat only enough to mix" is the hinge. Once the dry ingredients meet the milk, fold until the flour is just damp and lumpy. Any further beating develops gluten and gives tunnels and a tough, peaked muffin.
- Greasing and release"Well-buttered" means every surface including the top rim, and the advice about running a knife around and standing the muffins on their edges is sound: steam trapped in a hot tin softens the crust. Paper liners make this moot.
- Berry methodLayering berries between spoonfuls of batter rather than stirring them in keeps them from bleeding and sinking. Frozen berries work if added unthawed. Cranberries want a little extra sugar in the batter.
- YieldAbout 12 standard muffins, or 8 to 9 large ones.