By Margaret Malsam
“Have you seen the muffin man… the muffin man…” goes an old British nursery rhyme that I read aloud to my granddaughter Liz. I would like to answer, “No, but I know a Muffin Lady in north Denver who has warmed many hearts with her muffins.”
Big ones, wee ones, sweet ones — everybody loves muffins, especially for breakfast or at tea time. In 19th century England, muffin men walked the streets of England at teatime to sell their muffins. They carried trays of English muffins and rang bells to beckon their customers. These English muffins, however, were leavened with yeast and not the sweet cupcake-shaped American variety that we know today.
My muffin lady friend knocks on doors delivering her sweet homemade muffins, but she doesn’t sell them. Instead she gives them away to newcomers in her North Denver neighborhood and makes many new friends. “People are surprised because they can’t believe someone would welcome them to the neighborhood, “ she says.
Recently she was honored for her muffin hospitality in the Harkness Heights neighborhood at a banquet hosted by Mayor John Hickenlooper at a downtown Denver hotel. Her fame has spread, and now she has been asked to deliver muffins to employees in the offices of City and County of Denver.
North Denver’s Muffin Lady makes many different kinds of muffins, but she reports that her fresh pumpkin and rhubarb muffins are the most popular. I have been privileged to taste her muffins many times, and I too especially like her pumpkin and rhubarb muffins. Many times her friends give her rhubarb and pumpkins for her muffin ministry.
If you are a newcomer to North Denver and someone knocks on your door, it just might be my smiling muffin lady friend welcoming you with her tasty muffins.. Her recipes are printed below.
History of muffins
The derivation of the word “muffin” comes from the French word “moufflet “which is often times applied to bread and means soft. The two main types of muffins are English muffins and American-style muffins. They vary in style as well as flavor and history. English muffins are a flat yeast raised muffin with nooks and crannies that are cooked on a hot griddle. English muffin history dates all the way back to the 10th and 11th centuries in Wales. Early English muffins were cooked in muffin rings that were hooplike and placed directly on a stove or the bottom of a skillet.
American-style muffins, however, are small, cup-shaped quick breads and usually served hot. They are sweetened and placed in molds due to the mixture being a batter rather than dough. In Colonial times, these muffins were originally leavened with potash that produces carbon dioxide gas in the batter. When baking powder was developed around 1857, it put an end to the use of potash as well as to the profitable potash exports to the old country.
Three states in the United States have adopted official muffins. Minnesota has adopted the blueberry muffin as the official state muffin. Massachusetts in 1986 adopted the corn muffin as the official state muffin. Then in 1987, New York took on the apple muffin as its official muffin of choice.
