Monday Musing: The Difference Between Muffins and Cupcakes

At the insistence of a close friend, I've decided to post a Monday update going forward. This will include feedback, suggestions or, as is the case today, random musings. So without further ado, my first Monday Musing:

The chocolate chip muffin tops I made last night went over extremely well. Everyone liked them and I think I'm going to make muffin tops more often. If I were to re-make this recipe I think I would add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the wet ingredients.

A friend of mine asked me to expound on the difference between a muffin and a cupcake. I immediately responded "icing." But it got me thinking that my answer was a bit simplistic and ignores grey areas such as muffins topped with melted chocolate or glazed with a sugar glazing. Clearly there must be a bright line where a cupcake ceases to be a cupcake and becomes a muffin or vice versa. In our profession we crave clear standards so after a bit of research, I propose the following standards:

Cupcake

• A cupcake shall not contain any flour but white flour, where white flour is defined as cake flour, all purpose flour, bleached flour or the like.
• A cupcake shall have a cake-like consistency. Moist, sweet and spongy.
• A cupcake shall have icing. A cupcake without icing is a muffin per se. Eligible icings include, but are not limited to cream cheese, buttercream, royal, ganache. A glaze shall not be considered an icing. Melted chocolate can be considered icing only if the underlying pastry is of a consistency that it would otherwise be considered a cupcake if icing were applied. If the pastry is otherwise a muffin then melted chocolate shall not be considered icing and the pastry shall be a muffin.

Muffin

• A muffin may be made of any type of flour, including but not limited to wheat, bran, corn, whole grain or others.
• A muffin may, but is not required to have a significantly heavier texture than a cupcake. If a questionable pastry has a light texture but is not iced, it is a muffin. If it has a light texture but is iced, it is a cupcake.
• A muffin shall be flavored. The flavoring need not be pronounced or exotic and can, but is not required to, include fruit, nuts, chocolate chips or other ingredients.

Chocolate Chip Muffin Tops

After quite a few weeks of fruit flavored baking, I decided to make chocolate chip muffins this week. I found this recipe which, interestingly enough, calls for melted instead of creamed butter. Otherwise this recipe is pretty much like a standard chocolate chip cookie recipe but with a more liquid dough. I also decided to use a muffin top pan instead of regular muffin tin. I think they came out pretty well, they certainly smell delicious.

In blog related news, I ordered a kitchen aid stand mixer. I've lusted after them for years but have been put off by the high price. That is, until now. ShopKitchenAid.com is having a 30% off the entire store special if you enter coupon code REBCC30 at checkout. Surprisingly, this includes their outlet store, which sells refurbished models. I ordered a refurbished heavy duty / professional series 5 quart 475 watt bowl lift stand mixer for $139.00 shipped after coupon. Unfortunatly it's indefinitly backordered but I'm hoping that it will be available in two weeks as the site states. When it gets here I'll have a full report, until then here is this week's recipe.


Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup light-brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 (11 1/2 ounce) package milk chocolate chips


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Grease muffin top pan
3. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt.
4. In another bowl, stir together milk, eggs and butter until blended.
5. Make a well in center of dry ingredients.
6. Add milk mixture and stir just to combine and eliminate flour clumps.
7. Gently stir in chocolate chips.
8. Spoon batter into greased muffin cups.
9. Bake until golden brown and edges are slightly more brown. A toothpick should come out clean. Because each muffin top pan is different, you're going to have to keep your eye on them.
10. Cool in pan 5 minutes then remove to wire rack.

Low Fat Strawberry Muffins

Sorry for the late post, we closed for President's Day so I'm posting on Monday night. This week's post is somewhat of a change in that it's a low-fat recipe. It was requested by someone in the office and I figured I'd give it a shot. It's a standard recipe but the vegetable oil is replaced with equal parts applesauce. They didn't seem to rise as much as if made with oil and generally seem to be very dense.



Ingredients

1 2/3 cups fresh strawberries, sliced to small bits
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1.Heat oven to 425 F.
2.Put a paper baking cup in each of 12 regular-size muffin cups, or grease just the bottoms of 12 muffin cups.
3.Slightly smash strawberries in large bowl, using fork.
4.Stir in sugar, applesauce and eggs until mixed.
5.Stir in other ingredients just until moistened.
6.Spoon batter into muffin cups.
7.Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until light golden brown or toothpick poked in center comes out clean.

DETOUR -- Strawberry Banana Bread

Normally I make muffins but I decided to change things up a bit and make banana bread. Strawberries are very much in season right now and it would be a shame to waste the opportunity to use a tried and true recipe. In addition, I went to a local strawberry farm on Saturday and, apart from seeing a fact witness to one of our cases there, got some pretty ripe strawberries. So without further delay here is my recipe, of long lost origins, for Strawberry Banana Bread.

Ingredients
2 stick softened unsalted better
2 cups sugar
2 cups ripe bananas, mashed
4 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 cups flour
1.5 pounds fresh or frozen strawberries, sliced



Directions
1. Grease two loaf pans and pre-heat oven to 325
2. Cream softened butter and sugar
3. Incorporate mashed bananas and scrape down bowl
4. Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly
5. In a separate bowl combine salt, baking soda and flour
6. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients
7. Gently fold in strawberries
8. Bake 60-75 minutes

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I've never made Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins before and figured I would give it a shot. I found this recipe online and it looked as good as any other. I think the flavor will be a bit on the subtle side so the addition of the glaze seems to be a necessity.



Ingredients

3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tbsp poppy seeds

10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 Tbsp lemon zest

Glaze Ingredients

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup confectioner's sugar

Directions

1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, poppy seeds, and salt and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy (about 2 minutes with an electric mixer). Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the lemon zest.
4. Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat.
5. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups of a greased muffin tin. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set muffin pan on wire rack to cool. After 5 minutes, remove muffins from pan.
6. While the muffins are cooling, in a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice for the glaze. Add more lemon juice if necessary. While the muffins are still a bit warm, brush the glaze over each muffin.