Skip to main content
Bread

Mocha Muffins

Gem-pan muffins made with strong coffee, cooked oatmeal, flour, sugar, butter, milk and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Mocha Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream 1 tablespoon sugar with 2 tablespoons butter and 1 well beaten egg.

  2. Stir in 1 cup milk and 1 cup strong coffee.

  3. Add alternately 1½ cups flour sifted with 1½ teaspoons baking powder and ½ teaspoon salt.

  4. Lastly beat in 1 cup cooked oatmeal.

Bake

  1. Bake 20 minutes in hot buttered gem pans.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

987Calories
33 gProtein
29 gFat
147 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Oat1/2 cup dry (40g)154
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the muffins together as they bake.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, making the muffins rise.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set into a firm crumb in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the crumb stay tender.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the muffin tops brown.
Milk
Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.

The step that matters

Adding the flour mixture alternately. Mix only until the flour is evenly combined. Over-beating develops gluten in the flour, which makes muffins tough and dense rather than light.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes