A Lifetime of Muffin Evolution

It has occurred to me recently -again- that we as Americans do not have much of an understanding of history – at least not in the European sense, and certainly not at all from the Asian perspective. We tend to think of our own history, say of the ‘old west’, as ancient – yet a figure as central as Wyatt Earp in that old west history only died as recently as 1929. 1929! For god’s sake, I came into this world only a few years later than that.

In the grand scheme of things, that is not history at all. It’s just amazing how quickly we tend to see things as historical, old and outdated.

I suppose as we grow and mature, it is human nature to get enthused and energized about all the ‘progress’ around us – I certainly did – we must have everything new that has just been developed – it is not acceptable to continue to use outdated things. And I guess it is also human nature that as we grow older, we either tire of the effort of trying to keep up, or we slowly realize the folly of doing so – or both.

Is it really progress to have rejected quality for speed and to have traded taste for convenience? For the most part, our current society has answered Yes to these questions – and the old ways are relegated to history – and history is bad.

But now that I am old enough to pause, I think it’s important to try and rethink and recapture at least part of what we’ve missed as a society by our rejection of the way things were done historically. And a good part of our ‘old fashioned’ culinary history is the unique way that cooking and baking was done historically – I often speak of the ‘granny method’, and what I mean is simply that in olden times, cooks and bakers did not use recipes –cookbooks are a relatively new invention– they simply had a feel for the ingredients they used, and for the dishes they made – it was all in their head. And if they didn’t have a particular ingredient, they knew just what they could sub for it, and how much. That was the granny method – and it is my contention that even today, a real cook or baker has not matured into self confidence and self respect until they have reached this level of expertise – their own personal granny method at work.

In my own evolution as a baker, the one item associated most in my experience with the granny method was the bran muffin. I’ve loved bran muffins for as long as I can remember, and I have baked them for almost as long. If one is interested in learning how to bake something from memory, it should be something they bake often – and for me, that meant a bran muffin.

As I’ve suggested above, when one utilizes the granny method, it means that one has learned which parts of the process are inviolate, or absolute rules – having said that, I learn every day about exceptions to baking rules I once thought absolute, but surely, good bakers attain consistency by adhering to certain rules – so it’s a wise practice to follow, until experience suggests otherwise. The flip side of that is that there are parts of the process where all sorts of substitutions can, and should, be made. Put together, these two elements of the granny method result in the baker gaining a ‘feel’ for the creation of the product in question – in my case, the bran muffin.

My mother made her bran muffins by using a bran cereal, as do many even now – but cereals all have unneeded additives and heavy doses of sugar, so I choose to use raw bran instead – I don’t know if raw bran was available in my mother’s time, but All Bran cereal was (introduced in 1923), and that’s what she used. But the use of raw bran gives one more control over creation of a more natural muffin, and I think that’s a meaningful goal. So for me, one rule is the use of raw bran in my bran muffins. Besides, it is very good for you.

Raw bran is a very interesting product – it is, of course, the outer coating of a kernel of wheat. In the case where the miller is making a white flour, the bran is removed and is sold as raw bran (raw bran is probably a misnomer, since most available ‘raw’ bran has been toasted to increase its shelf life – truly raw bran would quickly go rancid unless refrigerated). When I first discovered raw bran, it was in a grocery bulk food section, and I remember it was .19 a pound – the nature of raw bran is such that you’d need a pillow case to get a full pound! I filled a big plastic bag that day for .12. So in this case, going natural will not cost more than going processed. (I think raw bran is up to about 50 cents a pound now – still damn cheap)

Rule two – purely personal again, I always use molasses in bran muffins – not only is it much less processed than white sugar, which I truly believe is toxic, and will one day be banned from human consumption, but molasses also adds a depth of flavor complexity completely missing in sugar. Because I’m using a relatively small amount of molasses, I bump the sweetness level up a notch with a few tablespoons of Splenda, and together these two sweeteners do a nice complete job – at least to my taste.

I also employ a third rule when I make muffins, any baking powder muffins, and that is to mix all your dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, and only at the last minute put them together. The reason for this is that baking powder does it’s job of leavening both by application of heat, and by application of wet ingredients – so if you mix in your wet ingredients too early, half of the rise reaction will be over by the time the muffins hit the oven.

With those rules in hand, and my bran muffin granny method in mind, here then is my current iteration of my lifelong love,

Whole Wheat Molasses Bran Muffins

Turn on your oven to 400 degrees F before starting

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour (you may use any kind of flour you wish here)

• 1 ¼ cups of raw bran (do not sub this)

• 1 Tbs baking powder (try to use an aluminum free kind like Rumford, to avoid the nasty taste)

• ½ tsp baking soda

• 1 ½ tsp sea salt, or 2 tsp kosher salt (or to taste)

• 2 Tbs Splenda (yes, a small amount will still create a sweet taste, but not any aftertaste)

• ½ cup toasted and chopped walnuts (toast in heating oven for 8-12 minutes, or until you can smell them)

• ½ cup raisins or cranberries (or any kind of dried fruit, chopped to size)

Mix all above in a medium bowl and set aside. Now take a large 2^nd bowl and mix the following together.

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 cup buttermilk (any liquid can be used, but ‘acidic’ buttermilk is especially good here)

• 1 beaten egg (a 2^nd egg will add richness, but will also make the muffins rubbery – a tradeoff)

• ¼ cup molasses (Tip- coat the inside of your ¼ cup measure with oil and the molasses will slide out easily)

• 3 Tbs of melted butter (or my current favorite, coconut oil)

• ½ cup of applesauce (or any mashed ripe fruit such as banana, pear or peach)

Process:

• Liberally grease the cups of a 12 cup muffin tin

• add the contents of the dry bowl into the larger bowl of wet ingredients, and mix together well

• this should be a firm batter, but not overly so

• if need be, add a few Tbs more of buttermilk

• if it’s too wet to hold it’s shape, add a tiny bit of flour

• quickly fill the cups of the muffin tin – the batter will fill the cups

• get the muffin tin into the hot oven as quickly as possible

• bake for 22-25 minutes @ 400F, turning muffin tin halfway through baking

• when you think they may be done, test them with a toothpick (nothing should stick to it)

• remove from oven when done and let them cool on a rack for 5 or 10 minutes – you may want to loosen and tilt each individual muffin in the tin while cooling to keep the bottoms crisp

And after you’ve made these a few times, you can begin making your own variations, such as adding a few Tbs of cocoa and coffee powder (for pumpernickel muffins) – or chocolate chips instead of dried fruit – or oats and dried blueberries with a streusel topping. Whatever your imagination can come up with. And best of all, you’ll soon be able to make them without looking at a recipe, because you will have developed a feel for how to make muffins – any muffins.

A nice feeling.