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Dessert

Graham Muffins

A muffin made with graham flour, sour cream, butter, sugar, huckleberries, and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Graham Muffins

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Graham Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix sour cream, beaten egg, salt, molasses, baking soda, and baking powder.

  2. Gradually add graham flour, mixing until combined.

  3. In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  4. Combine the two mixtures and fold in huckleberries.

Bake

  1. Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins.

  2. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Graham flour
Provides the bulk and the nutty, coarse texture that gives the muffins their structure.
Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air and adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the muffins and helps brown the crust while creaming with the butter.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and moisture as it sets in the oven.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and acidity, which reacts with the baking soda to help the muffins rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas that lifts the batter as it bakes.

The step that matters

Combine the two mixtures and fold in huckleberries. Overmixing once the flour is in develops gluten and makes muffins tough. Fold gently, just until combined, so the batter stays tender and the berries are evenly distributed.

“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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