Muffins came to us along with the McDonalds. Cute brown or beige three-bite cakes fit easily in the palm of your hand. People far from cooking think muffin is an American-style cake . But there is a huge difference between the two types of baking. And not only in shape. There are also small, portioned cupcakes placed in paper sockets. The difference is different. Want to know what? And also learn how to cook this exotic dish? Then read on to this article.
The main difference
British cooking knows what cakes are. In principle, the homeland of this sweet pastry is the good old England. There, cupcakes make a variety of forms and types: large, which must be cut; small, in portioned cups; Topped with fudge or cream (cupcakes). But all this is not muffins. Cupcakes are much lighter, more airy. But at the same time more caloric. Muffins are heavier, their dough is more lumpy in structure. Slices of dried fruit, grated zest, raisins are sometimes put in muffins, but they are never filled. The dough for muffins differs from the biscuit in both the ingredients and the way of kneading. It is closer in composition to ordinary bread. This is probably why unsweetened muffins exist. This baking is also done with the addition of oatmeal.
How people invented muffins
Like all good things in this world, these cakes owe their appearance to the occasion. In the rich houses of Misty Albion, cooks collected scraps of dough from the "master table" and baked small cakes for themselves, filling them with all kinds of leftover goodies. The gentlemen, having learned about this, took a test and were delighted. Thus, a muffin is a small loaf of bread with moist filling - berries, peach, pumpkin. Making it is very simple - the whole process along with baking will take a little more than half an hour. And so the muffins quickly became the symbol of English brackest, the same inalienable attribute as the croissants in the French “pit de de jene”. Since the fifties, this baking was adopted by the food industry. Dry mixes for baking muffins appeared on sale in America and Britain. And from the sixties, network cafe houses opened, where this pastry was served for breakfast.
Etymology of the word "muffin"
This culinary product, as we have already mentioned, was born in England. However, the name was "imported", which raises doubts about its British origin. According to one version, the word has French roots. Moufflet simply means “soft bread” (probably an unprecedented import luxury for the population of the islands of the eleventh century). But there is another version. According to her, “muffin” is a modified Old German word for muffen. It means “pie”. This version seems more believable. Since the muffins, even at the dawn of their existence, were still small cakes, mostly with sweet filling. There are two types of these confectionery products. British muffins at first resembled cakes. Overseas in the New World, they began to bake in tin cans. So there were muffins - cupcakes to which we are accustomed.
Kneading dough
As mentioned above, muffins and baby cakes in a paper outlet differ in the proportions of the ingredients. For muffins, more eggs and milk are used, but less sugar. As a result, the dough, and the finished product, is more difficult. For muffins, the butter is ground with sugar, eggs and milk are introduced. The basis for them is whipped with a mixer. For muffins, there is one rule when kneading: separately mix solid and liquid ingredients. In this case, the dough is rolled out by hand, in extreme cases, with a mixer with a nozzle in the form of a blade. We have already mentioned that there are British - classic - muffins, and American. They differ in that yeast is included in the traditional recipe. In American muffins, the dough rises by adding baking powder or soda. As for the flour, it can be corn - especially in the American version.
Recipe: Shaped Muffins
Without a long word, let's get down to business. We bake muffins, which are the hallmark of Minnesota cooking , with blueberry filling. We on the Old Continent will successfully replace it with blueberries. Remember that in the preparation of muffins, the sequence of bookmarking products is extremely important. First, mix an equal amount of butter (spread and especially margarine are not suitable) and sugar. Then we introduce eggs - three pieces, if we take one hundred grams of the previous ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix 100 g of sifted flour with half a bag of cookie powder. Cinnamon can be added to sweet muffins - on the tip of a knife. The dough cannot be kneaded with a mixer - this will negatively affect its splendor.
The mold for muffins is metal and silicone. Choose any, but grease it with oil, and inside place a socket of parchment paper. Lay out the dough, filling in only one third of the volume of the mold. Blueberries need to be laid out in a bowl in advance and sprinkled with a small amount of flour, being careful not to damage the integrity of the berries. If the product is frozen - all the better, do not bring it to room temperature. Put a spoonful of berries in the center of the muffin. Immediately cover with a dough. We spread it first on the periphery, and then on the filling. Attention: muffins in the oven grow, so you should fill no more than two-thirds of the volume of the mold. Immediately set to bake for fifteen minutes over medium heat. The oven should be preheated to 180-190 degrees. We check readiness with a speck.
British muffins
We dilute two grams of dried yeast in half a glass of warm milk. In another bowl, grate sixty grams of butter with two tablespoons of sugar. In a third bowl, sift 250 g of flour. Mix it with a pinch of salt, two tablespoons of raisins and a handful of ground almonds. Combine the flour and oil mass. Lastly, add milk with yeast. Knead the dough and leave for three quarters of an hour in a warm place. When it rises, break in, divide into twelve servings, each rolled into a ball. Roll each into a thick cake. In the middle we lay out a spoonful of thick confiture. We pinch the edges. The mold for muffins from yeast dough may not be a paper outlet, but it should still be greased, and it is recommended to sprinkle the bottom with flour a little. Bake the products in a preheated oven for about half an hour.