National Muffin Day: celebrate with a master mix

Today is National Muffin Day according to a calendar that keeps up with such trivia. That is a warm thought on a day in which much of the nation is blanketed in snow, ice or a mix of both. Today we usually whip out a mix from the grocery store when we are in the mood for muffins, but it wasn't always that way. There was a time when all baking was "from scratch" and that didn't mean you were scratching while you were putting the ingredients together. It simply means that every ingredient was measured, added to the bowl and then mixed by spatula, fork, or mixer. (Some people say "by hand" but that is kind of a misnomer also.) Before store mixes there were master mixes. These mixes had the basic ratio of flour, sugar, salt, and wet ingredients to make the desired baked good but you could also add extra ingredients to make them special or seasonal. For example, adding chopped apples and fall spices in autumn or blueberries in the summer. You see during the time of no mixes in the stores, there was also less frozen fruits or fruits from long distances. According to my reproduction of the 1950 Betty Crocker cookbook the name muffins means "little muffs"...as in warming your hands. This cookbook has many master mixes that don't even use self-rising flour (a mini master mix!)

a reproduction of the original 1950 Betty Crocker picture cook book

Here is the muffin master mix from that book:

Popular Muffins Sweeter Muffins

2 cups sifted flour* 1 1/2 cups

1/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup

3 tsp. baking powder 2 tsp.

1/2 tsp. of salt 1/2 tsp.

Sift dry ingredients into the mixing bowl and add

1/4 cup soft shortening 1/4 cup

1 egg 1 egg

1 cup milk 1/2 cup

Mix ingredients together until just blended. Muffins are easy to over mix. Fill greased muffin cups or paper liners 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown approx. 20-25 minutes. Serve warm.

You can multiply the dry ingredients how ever many times you like and keep on hand so that all you have to do is add the wet ingredients and it serves you like a box mix.

For example:

Popular Muffins Sweeter Muffins

2 1/4 cups of mix 2 cups of mix

add recipe amount of wet ingredients

Sweeter muffin add ins (pick one)

-3/4 cup blueberries at the end

- 1 cup raw grated apple with 1/2 tsp cinnamon, for nut crunch topping mix 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup broken nuts, and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

-add an egg when mixing and 1 tsp honey and a slice of orange on the bottom of muffin liner, then spoon in batter.

Popular muffin add ins

-fill cups half full of batter then a scoop of jelly, add more batter to make 2/3 full- Surprise Muffins

-add 1 cup dried fruit, cut up larger fruits like dates or figs.

-substitute 1/2 cup maple syrup for 1/2 cup of milk

Try something somewhat different on National Muffin Day-try a muffie. Here is a Panera copycat from pieladybakes.com