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