anyone else want to discuss the essense of muffins?!?

[harmonic_tabby]

Thought I'd post a new message since this discussion was deep in another post and it's changed topic considerably from the original posting.  In reply to another message I said: 

I used a box of King Arthur muffin mix and I was disappointed.

I chose the cranberries and pecans for the suggested one and one-half cups of add-ins and tried the lime zest for a bit more flavor. The flavor of the muffins was excellent; spicy batter, chewy cranberries and lovely crunch of the pecans.

The muffin mix itself was very cake-y and I was hoping for a bit more heft/chew. I followed the directions and had 12 liners in my 12 hole muffin pan. After they were full I had to get out more liners and another pan because I had much too much batter left over. (It made 16 and I could probably have made 18 if the liners weren't filled quite as full.)

They baked up nicely and the flavor, overall, was just fine but... I have a second box sitting on the counter and I'll probably make them tomorrow with my standard fruit mix of cranberries and raisins and some chopped hazelnuts.

I can certainly recommend using the muffin recipe from the back of Pamela's baking mix and choosing your inclusions to suit yourself as that's what I usually use. When I make that Pamela's recipe into 'chocolate chocolate chip' muffins, well don't bother me I'm busy snacking.

Tabs

[EDIT: so I did make that second box. It made 18 muffins in a regular baking pan, not the 12 listed on the box. They tasted fine but they were very like cupcakes, although not quite so tender of crumb. Perfectly acceptable but I'm going to switch back to the Pamela's baking mix recipe for my muffin cravings. Make of that what you will.]


and jesse_the_k  replied:  
 

 

Thank you for this detailed update.

I've never had a bad result from Pamela's mixes, either.

Now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever understood how the Platonic ideals of "cupcake" and "muffin" differ.

Are cupcakes finer-crumb, more consistent? While muffins are the granola of baked goods?

 

My response to this inquiry was:

OK, let's try an analogy.

Cupcakes are simple white bread and muffins are artisanal rye bread. That's how I experience them anyway. I guess you could also compare a nice pound cake to cupcakes and muffins to a dense fruitcake.

My expectation is for a muffin to have a bit more weight and chewiness. It doesn't necessarily need to have special inclusions like nuts, dried fruit or baking chips.

I admit to enjoying lemon poppy seed 'muffins' from a local bakery but, truly, according to this definition they're really just oversize cupcakes; a smooth tender batter with lemon flavoring and lots of poppy seed mixed in.

This is my take on the differences between cupcakes and muffins... Anyone else want to offer another idea? I make no claim I'm absolutely the expert on this and I'm curious to know what others might think.


and then runpunkrun  said:

All I know for sure is that cupcakes have frosting. They're also, in general, sweeter, with a finer, more delicate crumb and more fat.

Muffins, to me, are anything that feel appropriate to eat for breakfast, but mine are generally made with whole grains and fruits, and have less fat and sugar in them. But they can still have chocolate chips, as long as they don't also have frosting. :D

 

Comments

[loligo]

I agree with you on the KAF muffin mix. My kids love the muffins, especially when made with blueberries, but they are sweeter and more tender/less hearty than I prefer. To me, cupcakes are even sweeter and more tender than that (and usually have frosting) -- but for sure, KAF muffin mix is way on the cupcake side of the muffin spectrum.

[ranalore]

I've always divided them as cupcake=little (sponge variety) cake and muffin=little quick bread. So I expect a cupcake to be more dessert-sweet, with a higher fat content and more delicate crumb. I expect muffins to be chewier, breakfast-sweet, with that quick bread weight and crumb. In truth, of course, the flavor profiles can be very similar given similar ingredients, but the texture itself should be different, and I don't consider a cupcake a cupcake unless it has a glaze, icing, or frosting. A muffin can have a glaze, but I'd find it very bizarre if it had icing or frosting.

I've never tried the KAF mix, but every Pamela's product I've tried is awesome.

Ahhhhhhhh!

[jesse_the_k]

little cake/little bread is the analogy that works for my little gluten-starved brain

[athousandsmiles]

My favorite restaurant has a sign up that reads:

"Cupcakes are just muffins that believed in miracles."

:D

[ldybastet]

I've never understood the difference between the two before, except that cupcakes have frosting... This is probably because we don't really have cupcakes in my country, just muffins, and we always eat them to coffee, never for breakfast... Different cultures, different muffins? ;)

[nerakrose]

i never understood the difference between muffins and cupcakes since where i'm from they're all called muffins and the only difference is sometimes you put frosting on them, but not like cupcakes - they're still muffins (have a top) and the frosting is a thin kind drizzled on top, or icing. (for a long time i actually thought people cut the tops off muffins in order to make the cupcakes i kept seeing in photos on the internet, to make room for the buttercream frosting...)

so the whole 'difference in crumb' makes no sense to me, because they're all basically mini cakes to me :'D often when i make muffins/cupcakes/whatever it's just a cake recipe i've put in little muffin forms instead of a large pan. (the exception would be the banana nut muffins i posted to this comm the other day, that one was inspired by years of seeing banana nut muffins recipes posted everywhere and if not for it being in a muffin form i would've classified it as a savoury roll, except it had chocolate chips and a whole banana in it...)

so i don't really have strong opinions about them, i guess? *shrug*

Thanks, Tabs

[jesse_the_k]

...for further investigation into this essential epistemological issue. :p)

Reading fanfic set in the UK had led me to believe that fairy cakes were the same as cupcakes, but British Baker, the trade mag for commercial pastry purveyors, claims that fairy cakes are smaller, and sport signature 'wings' on top dusted with caster sugar, not frosting.

As far as muffins go, I have been seeing muffin-shaped items labeled "scones" at Starbucks and other coffee-adjacent emporia. I am hear to tell you they are wrong. Scones must be principally butter or cream, and they must be a triangular slice from a round. You can chew a muffin; a scone will crumble.

you're welcome!?!

[harmonic_tabby]

little cake/little bread is a great analogy...

Cupcakes are mini-cakes; yes that's the idea because you can mix up a cake batter and then pour it into paper baking cups instead of rounds or squares or a sheet pan. And then frost the heck out of it.

Muffins aren't made with cake batter; they might be quick bread or brownie mix or cookie dough or ... No frosting but maybe streusel, a sprinkle of oversize sugar, dusted with cocoa powder and I have had a few 'true' muffins that were lightly glazed.

You're on your own, jesse_the_k if you want to start a discussion(fight) about scones or even shortbread, hah!

Tabs (still snorting about the epistemological ramifications of scones)