Based on a 1943 Swans Down cake flour ad, these muffins use cake flour to help provide the tenderness usually added by shortening.
1⅓ cups unsifted cake flour
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon melted butter
Heat oven to 400°F. Grease an 8-cup muffin pan.
Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat together milk and egg in a small bowl.
Make a well in center of flour mixture. Add milk mixture and butter. Stir just until all dry ingredients have been moistened. Do not overheat.
Divide muffin mixture into greased muffin cups and bake 20 to 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove to serving container and serve warm.
8 Muffins
“It takes about 100 pounds of milk to make 5 pounds of butter—or in other figures—9 to 10 quarts of milk to make a single pound. This relationship between butter and milk makes it easy to understand why both of them become such important commodities in wartime.”—American Cookery, February 1944