English muffin

A split muffin

A muffin or English muffin is a small, round, flat (or thin) type of yeast-leavened bread, almost always dusted with flour or cornmeal, which is commonly served split horizontally, toasted, and buttered. Muffins are eaten either as a snack alone or as part of a meal.

History

An old English nursery rhyme, "The Muffin Man", describes a door-to-door purveyor of muffins. The rhyme was known at the time of Jane Austen in the early 19th century, and a muffin man is mentioned at one point in her novel Persuasion. The muffins sold at this period were made of yeasted dough and baked on a hot griddle.

The name is first found in print in 1703, spelled moofin; 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.

Muffins may well originate as far back as the 10th century, yet the muffin became a fashionable bread during the 18th century. By the beginning of the 19th century, there were dozens of muffin factories in existence, and the "muffin man" was a common sight.

Muffins are a quick-baking bread and have become a tea-table staple. They are usually split, toasted, buttered and then eaten with a savoury or sweet topping such as honey.

In North America and Oceania

Muffins are commonly available in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. Outside of the United Kingdom they are commonly called English muffins. They are most often toasted and then topped with butter and/or jam. They are also used in breakfast sandwiches with meat (bacon, ham, or sausage), egg (fried, scrambled, poached or steam-poached) and/or cheese. They are the base ingredient in the traditional American brunch dish Eggs Benedict. They often can be found in different varieties, such as whole wheat, cinnamon raisin, cranberry, apple cinnamon, and so on.

The English muffin as it is known in the United States more closely resembles a crumpet than the muffin produced in Britain in that it has holes on the upper surface. In both cases this is due to the fact that a batter rather than a dough is used resulting in bubbles of gas, produced by the leaven, breaking the surface as the cake cooks. The muffin dough used in Britain is slightly firmer in texture preventing this from occurring. Other than moisture content, there is little difference between a muffin dough and a crumpet batter.

United Kingdom

Most British supermarkets sell variations on the standard bread muffin, notably cheese, whole meal and even cinnamon and raisin. Muffins may also be sold with pieces of chocolate, blueberries or other dried fruit. These types of small pastries are in fact cup-cakes and reflect the relatively recent adoption of the American sense of the word "muffin" in the United Kingdom. To distinguish them, the traditional type is now labelled "original muffins" in supermarkets while the other types are referred to as "American muffins". Muffins are also available in traditional British tea rooms, served with breakfast or high tea although tea cakes are more commonly found in such places.

See also

• Crumpet
• Foster's English muffins, sourdough English muffins that were the favorite English muffins in San Francisco from the 1940s to the 1970s
• Muffin
• McMuffin
• Scone
• Thomas' - the most common American brand
• Dempster - Maple Leaf Foods brand selling English muffins in Canada
• George Weston Limited Wonder Bread - Canadian brand sells English muffins

Further reading

• English Bread and Yeast Cookery by Elizabeth David, Penguin Books, 1979, contains a discussion on the origins and use of the English muffin.