French Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Dissolve the yeast in warm water and mix in enough flour to create a stiff batter.
Set the batter in a warm place for 4 hours.
Stir the batter down.
Shape and rise
Divide it into ¼ pound pieces.
Mold each piece with your hands.
Place them in wooden trays with a round bed of flour.
Let them stand in a warm place for 2 hours.
Cook
Cook on an iron griddle.
Turn them over when nicely risen.
Bake for about 10 minutes if the stove is sufficiently hot.
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.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Yeast
- Ferments the batter, producing gas that makes the muffins rise and become light.
- Flour
- Forms the stiff batter structure that holds the shaped muffins together while they rise.
- Warm water
- Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast so the batter can ferment.
The step that matters
Letting the batter and shaped pieces rise fully. Yeast gas expands the dough slowly in warm conditions. Rising too short leaves dense muffins, and the griddle cannot make up for it. Turning them only when nicely risen helps the interior set properly.
“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.
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