Who doesn’t like a big, tasty muffin to start their day in the morning? Muffins are an essential morning staple for many people (and great in the evenings too). Muffin Day is an opportunity for you to celebrate everything you might love about muffins with the people around you.
- American muffins are referred to as baked bread in small tins while “English” Muffins are oven-baked, then cooked in a griddle.
- The word Muffin likely derives its name from the Old German word Muffen, the plural of Muffe meaning a small cake.
- The Muffin Man was a real guy! He delivered muffins to homes along Drury Lane in England. American muffins are similar to a cupcake in size and cooking methods but cupcakes are almost always made with cake batter.
- English muffins which are yeast raised and cooked on a griddle, may date back to the 10th or 11th century in Wales.
- American muffins are ‘quick breads’ made in individual molds. Quick breads were not developed until the end of the 18th century.
- The McDonald’s Egg McMuffin was introduced in 1972, it consists of American cheese, Canadian bacon, an English muffin and an egg.
- Do you know the Muffin Man? The Muffin Man, the Muffin Man. Do you know the Muffin Man, Who lives in Drury Lane? The muffin man went door to door delivering English muffins along Drury Lane. Many of the households on Drury Lane would have their food delivered to them. The rhyme was first published around 1820.
- Four U.S. states have adopted a State Muffin. (Massachusetts – Corn, Minnesota – Blueberry, New York – Apple and Washington – Blueberry).
- American muffins have round bases, rounded tops, and are usually sweet, but there are also savory kinds (like cornbread muffins).
- English muffins are a small, round, flat yeast-leavened bread which is commonly sliced horizontally, toasted, and buttered.
- Quickbread muffins known usually, simply as muffins originated in the United States in the mid-19th century. It was made possible by the invention of baking powder.
- The use of the term to describe what are essentially cup cakes or buns did not become common usage in Britain until the last decades of the 20th century on the back of the spread of coffee shops such as Starbucks.
- Muffins are similar to cupcakes in size and cooking methods, the main difference being that cupcakes tend to be the frosting. Cupcakes are topped with creamy, American frosting. Usually, the fillings inside the muffins add enough excitement to the baked good.
- Recipes for muffins are common in 19th-century American cookbooks.
- 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.
- In the past, muffins were sold door to door by hawkers in England as a snack bread before most houses were provided with ovens in the early nineteenth century, giving rise to the traditional English nursery rhyme “The Muffin Man”, which dates from 1820 at the latest.
Sources: