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Dessert

Brown Flour Muffins

A muffin made with graham flour, wheat flour, Indian meal, molasses, yeast, baking soda, and tepid water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Brown Flour 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.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine tepid water and yeast; let it sit until bubbly.

  2. Stir in Indian meal and molasses until well mixed.

  3. Add graham flour and wheat flour, mixing until smooth.

  4. Fold in baking soda and mix until the batter is thick like soft gingerbread.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into greased muffin tins.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

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.

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. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + wheattop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together702 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Ferments the batter, producing bubbles that help the muffins rise and turn airy.
Graham flour
Forms the main structure of the muffins and gives them their brown, nutty flavour.
Wheat flour
Adds gluten to build structure and a softer crumb alongside the graham flour.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and deep colour to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidity in the batter to release gas, helping the muffins rise.

The step that matters

Fold in baking soda and mix to a thick batter. Baking soda reacts quickly once it meets acid, so it should be mixed in just until incorporated and the batter baked promptly. Overmixing develops gluten and can make the muffins tough and dense.

“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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