March m.o.m. - Boston Brown Bread muffins

Earlier in the month I baked some molasses yeast bread (which, in the crazy logic of my blog, should be posted within the next week or so) and the flavor hinted at Boston Brown Bread to me. That set me to wondering if I could find a muffin recipe which would capture the BBB flavor. A quick Google search turned up many sites, most featuring the exact same recipe [see below]. It looked promising, so I baked it up for my mother's Muffin of the Month (m.o.m.) for March.


n.o.e.'s notes:

- I made a double batch of these muffins, which yielded 19 muffins in my silicone muffin pans and individual muffin molds.

- Because of food allergies of my muffin recipients, I omitted the raisins and used some soured Lactaid milk instead of buttermilk (or yogurt). I put lemon juice in the bottom of a measuring cup and filled it with the milk. Stir, and wait a few minutes - you'll have "clabbered" milk.

- All of my ingredient substitutions are noted in the recipe below.

- For the first time, I used a disher to portion the batter into the cups. It really does make filling muffin cups a whole lot easier - neater and more even in batter quantity.

the verdict:

The muffins were just sweet enough, with a little crunch in the texture from the cornmeal. They tasted the best when served warm with butter (but what doesn't, really?) I think that raisins or other dried fruit would be really good in these muffins. It was great to get the Boston brown bread flavor without having to steam a batch of bread.

I'm submitting these muffins to Bread Baking Day - this month (#18) the theme is "quick breads," and the host is Fun and Food Blog. Head over there next week to check out the roundup!

the recipe:

I found the identical recipe on several sites, none of which credited the original source.

Boston Brown Bread Muffins

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour [I used white whole wheat]
1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal [I used blue cornmeal]
1/4 cup sugar [I used light brown sugar]
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup low fat buttermilk [I soured some nonfat Lactaid milk with lemon juice]
1/3 cup vegetable oil [I used mild olive oil]
1/3 cup molasses
1 lightly beaten egg
1 cup raisins [I omitted]

1. Preheat oven to 400-degrees. Place 10 paper bake cups in a muffin pan.

2. In a bowl combine the flours, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda and salt.

3. In another bowl stir together the buttermilk, oil, molasses and egg until blended.

4. Add the dry mix to the wet mix; stir until just combined. Stir in the raisins.

5. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pans. Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until done.

Yields: 10 muffins.