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Health Food Muffins
1 cup warm wheat mush ¼ cup brown sugar ½ teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon butter ¼ yeast cake 1/4 cup lukewarm water 2¼ cups flour Mix first four ingredients, add yeast cake dissolved in lukewarm water, and flour; then knead. Cover, and let rise over night. In the morning cut down, fill buttered gem pans two-thirds full, again let rise and bake in a moderate oven. This mixture, when baked in a loaf, makes a delicious bread.
An overnight yeasted muffin built on leftover cooked wheat cereal — closer to a soft dinner roll than to a modern baking-powder muffin. The dough is slack but kneadable, and the long cool rise does most of the work.
- Wheat mushCracked wheat or whole-wheat cereal cooked with water and salt until thick, then cooled to warm — roughly the consistency of stiff porridge. Any leftover cooked whole-grain cereal will serve; it should be warm, not hot, or it will kill the yeast.
- Yeast quantityCompressed yeast came in cakes of varying size; if the cake meant here was the small type (about 0.6 oz), a quarter of one is a very small amount, correct for an overnight rise, and roughly equivalent to about 1/2 teaspoon of modern active dry yeast. Err on the low side, or the dough may over-ferment before morning.
- Gem pansCast-iron gem pans are the ancestor of the muffin tin. A standard 12-cup tin, well buttered, is the direct substitute; fill two-thirds full as directed.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350-375°F. Muffins of this size will take about 20 to 25 minutes; a loaf will want closer to 40 to 45 minutes and is done at about 195°F at the centre.
- Cut downThis means deflating the risen dough by folding or pressing it, not cutting it up. Do it gently, shape into the pans, and give the second rise 45 minutes to an hour in a warm kitchen.
- Overnight riseA cool spot suits this small quantity of yeast better than a warm one; the original overnight rise would have happened in an unheated kitchen. A modern warm room for twelve hours risks over-fermenting the dough.
- Flour and hydrationWheat mush varies a good deal in stiffness, so the 2¼ cups of flour is a starting point. Aim for a soft dough that just clears the bowl; add flour by the tablespoon rather than all at once.
- YieldMakes about 10 to 12 muffins, or one small loaf.
"Health food" in a turn-of-the-century American cookbook pointed to the whole-grain, digestion-minded cookery promoted by the sanitarium movement and by cereal manufacturers, and this muffin belongs to that world: it turns yesterday's breakfast cereal into today's bread. Cookbooks of the period are full of such conversions, since a pot of wheat or oat mush was a standard morning dish and little in a careful household was thrown out. The overnight sponge is older still — a small quantity of yeast set to work in a cool kitchen after supper was one common way to have fresh bread at breakfast.