A muffin is an individual-sized, baked product.

It can refer to two distinct items, a part-raised

flatbread and a cupcake-like quickbread. The flatbread is of British or European derivation, and
dates from at least the early 18th century, while the quickbread originated in North America
during the 19th century. Both are common worldwide today.

Contents

 1 Quick bread muffins

o 1.1 Manufacture
 2 Flatbread muffin
o 2.1 Etymology
o 2.2 Manufacture
 3 Bakeware and baking aids
 4 As symbols
 5 See also
 6 References

Quick bread muffins

Quickbread Muffin

Type quick bread

Course Traditionally breakfast

Place of origin United States

Main ingredients Flour, leavening, vegetable oil, sugar

Cookbook: Quickbread Muffin Media: Quickbread

Muffin

Quickbread muffins (known in Britain as “American muffins”[1] or simply as “muffins”)

originated in the United States in the mid-19th century. They are similar to cupcakes in size and
cooking methods, the main difference being that cupcakes tend to be sweet desserts using cake
batter and which are often topped with sugar frosting. Muffins are available in both savory
varieties, such as cornmeal and cheese muffins, or sweet varieties such as blueberry, chocolate
chip, lemon or banana flavours. Muffins are often eaten as a breakfast food. Coffee may be
served to accompany muffins. Fresh baked muffins are sold by bakeries, donut shops and some
fast food restaurants and coffeehouses. Factory baked muffins are sold at grocery stores and
convenience stores and they are also served in some coffee shops and cafeterias.

Recipes for quick bread muffins are common in 19th-century American cookbooks.[2][3] Recipes
for yeast-based muffins, which were sometimes called "common muffins" or "wheat muffins" in
19th-century American cookbooks, can be found in much older cookbooks. In her Boston
Cooking-School Cook Book, Fannie Farmer gave recipes for both types of muffins, both those
that used yeast to raise the dough and those that used a quick bread method, using muffin rings to
shape the English muffins. Farmer indicated that stove top "baking", as is done with yeast dough,
was a useful method when baking in an oven was not practical.[4]

Manufacture

Quickbread muffins are made with flour, sieved together with bicarbonate of soda as a raising
agent. To this is added butter, eggs and any flavourings (fruit, such as blueberries, chocolate or
banana; or savouries, such as cheese). The mix is turned into a pocketed muffin tray, or into
individual paper moulds, and baked in an oven. The result are raised, individual quickbreads.[1]

Flatbread muffin
Flatbread muffin

Alternative names English muffin

Type leavened bread

Course Traditionally breakfast

Place of origin United Kingdom

Main ingredients Flour, yeast

 Cookbook: Flatbread muffin Media: Flatbread
muffin

Flatbread muffins (known in the United States and elsewhere as "English muffins") were first
mentioned in literature in the early 18th century,[5] although the product is undoubtedly older
than that. The word "muffin" is thought to derive from the German mouffin.

This product is a flatter disk-shaped, typically unsweetened bread of English or European origin.
These muffins are popular in Commonwealth countries and the United States. Flatbread muffins
are often served toasted for breakfast. They may be served with butter or margarine, and topped
with sweet toppings, such as jam or honey, or savoury toppings (e.g., round sausage, cooked egg,
cheese or bacon). Flatbread muffins are typically eaten as a breakfast food.

The flatbread muffin is a type of yeast-leavened bread; generally about 4 in (10 cm) round and
1.5 in (3.8 cm) tall. Rather than being oven-baked, they are cooked in a griddle on the stove top
and flipped from side-to-side, which results in their typical flattened shape rather than the
rounded top seen in baked rolls or cake-type muffins.[6] Flatbread muffins were known to
American settlers, but declined in popularity with the advent of the quickbread muffin. They
were re-introduced to the American market in 1880 as "English muffins" by English-American
baker Samuel Beth Thomas (whose baked-goods company Thomas' survives to this day).

Etymology

The name is first found in print in 1703, spelled moofin;[7] it is of uncertain origin but possibly
derived from the Low German Muffen, the plural of Muffe meaning a small cake, or possibly
with some connection to the Old French moufflet meaning soft as said of bread.[8][9]

Manufacture

This photo is a sequence showing the preparation of a flatbread muffin based on a recipe by
Alton Brown in "The Muffin Man" episode of the television cooking show Good Eats.