Muffin
From ArticleWorld
The name muffin is given to two types of breadstuffs, one a yeast-leavened item, and the other a "quick" bread raised with baking powder or baking soda.
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Quick muffins
The quick muffins may have started out as a form of small cake, or possibly an adaptation of cornbread. Early versions of these muffins tend to be less sweet and much less varied in ingredients than their contemporary forms. Made quickly and easily, they were useful as a breakfast food.
Regrettably, they also rapidly grew stale, which prevented them from being a marketable baked good, and they were seldom seen much outside home kitchens until the mid-20th century. Recipes tended to be limited to different grains and a few readily available additives of raisins, apples in some form, or nuts.
Circular muffin paper cups
With the invention of circular muffin paper cups, hard-to-clean iron gem pans lost much popularity, and are rarely used today. Although corn muffins baked in the form of ears of corn remain a tradition. The development of non-stick pans has allowed the production of very elaborate and sometimes odd muffin shapes.
Preservatives
Preservatives in muffin mixes led to the expectation that muffins did not have to go stale within hours of baking. Except the resulting muffins were not a taste improvement over homemade.
On the other hand, the baked muffin, even if from a mix, seemed almost good for one compared to the fat saturated alternatives of doughnuts and Danish pastries. Health minded muffin recipes using whole grains and such natural things as yogurt and various vegetables evolved rapidly.
Nowadays muffins
The rising market for gourmet snacks to accompany gourmet coffees resulted in even fancier concoctions in greater bulk than the original modestly-sized corn muffin. Today it is not unusual to find a muffin along the lines of coconut, almond, cherry, chocolate that are the size of a small baby's head.
The marketing trend toward even bigger muffins also resulted in new muffin pan types for home-baking, not only for increased size. The traditional small round muffin top exploded or blossomed into a giant mushroom.