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First published in 2006 by Collins
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Text © Felicity Barnum-Bobb, 2006
Photography © Steve Baxter and Marie-Louise Avery, 2006
Photographer: Steve Baxter/Marie-Louise Avery
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Felicity Barnum-Bobb asserts her moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN: 9780007229321
Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2017 ISBN: 9780007582020
Version: 2017-02-20
Contents
What exactly is a muffin? Is it a cake, bun or type of bread? By working your way through the 100 recipes in this book, you’ll discover that it can be all those things. There are muffins and scones here to suit every mood and occasion: sweet and savoury, slimline or indulgent, for a special diet or a special occasion, mini-muffins for children or batch-baking for a party, this book’s got it sorted.
American muffins
This book is bursting with recipes for American muffins. Why? Because they are just so easy to make. They taste fantastic and everyone loves them. And best of all, they only take about 30 minutes to make. That’s the kind of cooking I go for – deeply satisfying yet speedy. Unlike English muffins (see below), these American treats contain baking powder, the magic ingredient that makes them rise into divine little cakey treats. Don’t get led astray by the shop-bought versions, which are always seriously over-sweet – real home-made muffins are never too sweet and they can, of course, be savoury too.
English muffins
The word ‘muffin’ is thought to have come from an old French word ‘moufflet’, meaning soft and referring to bread. There are references to English muffin recipes as early as 1747, but they were most popular in the nineteenth century.
Making English muffins is quite time-consuming because they use yeast. Although my recipes use easy-blend yeast to speed things up, you still need to leave the dough to rise. I don’t know about you, but when I’m baking I’m usually looking for instant gratification and I want the process to be fast and easy. My solution is to use a bread maker. Throw all the ingredients in the machine in the order your manufacturer recommends and let it do all the hard work, kneading and proving the dough. Then all you have to do is shape and cook them. Cooking English muffins is different – you don’t bake them, they are cooked on a hotplate or a solid flat griddle (an Aga hotplate is perfect) which gives them their traditional flat tops and bottoms. It’ll take a few attempts to get them cooked to perfection, but it’s worth persevering.
If you have children to entertain (as I regularly do, being a mother of four), I thoroughly recommend making the muffins by hand together. Measuring out the ingredients is a maths lesson in itself, and giving each child responsibility for one ingredient will make the whole thing a great team effort. Once the bulk of the dough is made, divide it equally between the children and let them each knead a piece. The great thing about any yeast mixture is the more you manhandle it, the better the end result will be. Encourage them to vent their anger on the dough, rather than each other, punch it, poke and smash it on the table. Even throwing the dough’s fine, as long as it’s not aimed at someone else!
Scones
These are speedy to make as they use self-raising flour or baking powder as their raising agent. This Scottish quick bread is said to have taken its name from the Stone of Destiny (or Scone), the place where Scottish kings were once crowned. The original recipe was made with oats and griddle