Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Muffins along with all the recipes employing Muffins presented on this site, with 103 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Muffins recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Muffins as a major wild food ingredient.

Muffins: In reality, muffins are lightly-sweetened quickbreads leavened with either yeast or baking powder. American-style muffins (image, left) are cake type mixes (though not so sweet as other cakes) cooked in muffin tins and leavened with baking powder. British muffins (known as English Muffins in North America) [image, right] are sweet breads leavened with yeast and baked as rounds that are toasted, torn in half and served buttered. Both styles of muffins are typically served for breakfast.

American-style muffins are typically baked with fillings that can be either chocolate or fruit or they can be made savoury being based on cornmeal and cheese. Typically they are not iced (frosted), though a simple sugar and lemon juice icing is sometimes used. The batter for these styles of muffins typically incorporate baking powder and soured milk (yoghurt or buttermilk) where the mix of sodium bicarbonate and aid makes them raise very quickly.

Recipes for yeast-based muffins go back to at least the Stuart period (1600s onwards) and there are several versions in the American edition of Eliza Acton's cookbook (1845). American-style muffins, by definition cannot occur before the Victorian era (when baking powder was invented). However, American Style muffins begin to appear commonly in American cookbooks from the mid 19th century onwards.

In Britain there is another kind of griddle cake known as a crumpet. This is a yeasted batter fried in crumpet rings until golden brown and cooked through on both sides. These are distinct from muffins which are fried yeasted dough. In early America, no distinction was made between a muffin and a crumpet and they were both called 'muffins'. With the advent (some early cookery books, like the additions to the American Edition [1845] of Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery by MRS. S. J. HALE call them 'Breakfast Batter Cakes') of baking powder these crumpet mixes became leavened with baking powder and were baked in the oven rather than a griddle. From these, the American Muffin was born.

It should be noted that, though they resemble cupcakes in shapes (they are cooked in the same paper cases and muffin tins), muffins are not so sweet as cupcakes and are intended as breakfast breads to be served with coffee. In the American South cornmeal muffins are served as accompaniments to meat and gravy.