Irma, You Done Done It Again

I had some leftover roasted yam from when I made "Tony Rigatoni" the other night, and this morning, as I looked into my somewhat bare fridge that was not offering up any appealing breakfast options, I thought, "Hm, I wonder if I can put that yam that into a quick bread or something." So I consulted my trusty Joy of Cooking, and what do you know, the exact thing I had in mind was right there in it's venerable pages: yam muffins! I'm enjoying a couple right now that I just took out of the oven. So spicy and sweet and warming; perfect for the fall weather that has FINALLY decided to come to Tucson. Thanks, Irma Rombauer.

One thing that I love about the Joy of Cooking (if you don't have a copy, you should really look around for one at a used bookstore or something. Get a classic edition; mine is a modern reprint of an edition from the '70s. Some of the recipes are dated, but it's just a charming all-purpose cookbook) is that it's not just a bunch of recipes. There is a lot of great practical information scattered throughout the chapters that help you understand what you're doing when you're cooking. Anyone can follow a recipe, but understanding why you are going through the steps in a very specific way is what makes you a cook or a baker. Rombauer includes one of these helpful tidbits for baking muffins, and it's so interesting (to me, anyway) and written in such a quaint, grandmotherly way that I have to include it with the recipe. It might make the difference in the quality of your muffins.

"Muffin batters are easily made. To mix, add in a few swift strokes the beaten liquid ingredients to the combined dry ones. The mixing is held to an absolute minimum, a light stirring from 10 to 20 seconds, which will leave some lumps. Ignore them. The dough should not be mixed to the point of pouring, ribbonlike, from the spoon, but should break in coarse globs. If the batter has been beaten too long, the gluten in the flour will develop and toughen the dough; and the grain of the muffin will be coarse and full of tunnels.... Good muffins should be straight-sided and rounded on top...the grain of the muffin is not fine but uniform and the crumb moist."

Isn't that lovely? There's actually a drawing included of what the cross section of a poorly-made muffin looks like, and what the top will look like if the oven temperature is wrong. Anyway, if you follow this advice, your muffins will be better for it, and you will be a better baker.

I made a couple of substitutions to the J of C recipe. I didn't have quite enough cooked yam, so I smashed it with a couple overripe bananas that I had been saving, and that worked out fine. I also did not add the extra 1/4 cup of sugar the book recommends. I figured the banana would provide enough sweetness, and in my opinion it did. If you were just using sweet potato, or canned pumpkin, I think the extra sugar would be necessary. I also used chopped walnuts instead of pecans--equally tasty either way, I think.

Joy of Cooking Yam Muffins

Dry ingredients:

1 1/4 cups flour, sifted

1/4 cup sugar (increase to 1/2 cup unless you are using banana)

2 tsps double-acting baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

3/4 tsp salt

Optional: 1 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts--and it doesn't have to be a full cup)

Wet ingredients:

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 cups milk

2 tbsps melted butter

1 cup cooked mashed yams, OR 1 cup canned cooked pumpkin, OR a combination of yam and banana

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients well in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, milk, and melted butter. Pour the mashed yam mixture into the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients over. Combine quickly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, following the recommendations above. Drop the batter from the spoon into greased muffin tins; each cup should be no more than 2/3 full of batter. Bake for twenty minutes, or until a knife inserted into one comes out clean. Irma says they are best right out of the oven.