The Ladies' Tea Guild

Friday, May 27, 2011

Potato Flour Muffins -- a vintage gluten-free recipe.

Here is a vintage recipe from 1929 for gluten-free muffins!

Potato Flour Muffins
3 eggs
2 tablespoons sugar
¾ cup potato flour, or potato starch
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons ice water

Separate the eggs and beat the whites until stiff and dry.  Beat the yolks until thick and lemon colored, then fold them into the whites.  Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together and fold into the egg mixture.  Lastly add the ice water and fold until well mixed.  Bake in greased muffin tins at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  Makes 12 muffins.
-- from Magic Chef Cooking, ca. 1929.

Potato starch and potato flour can be found more easily than ever these days, not just at Whole Foods, but even at Target!  My local Target store now has a grocery section including a small baking supply aisle, with several gluten-free products. 

7 comments:

Lady Dawnya said...

What a great recipe find Elizabeth. Congrats. This is fun.

South Bay Ladies' Tea Guild said...

Thanks, Dawnya! I haven't tried the recipe yet so I don't know if it's any good, but I'll post when I do.

Gluten-Free Flour said...

These local cassava (or tapioca) flours are not well suited for use in baking applications which are based on wheat flour in the rest of the world, including North America. Native Potato Starch

South Bay Ladies' Tea Guild said...

Thanks for the information, Gluten Free Flour! I've heard that potato and tapioca flours make baked goods heavy, and I've most often seen them mixed with rice flour or other grain-based gluten free flours in baking recipes. I wonder how the author of this cookbook got the idea for this recipe!

South Bay Ladies' Tea Guild said...
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South Bay Ladies' Tea Guild said...
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Anonymous said...

I have this recipe in two 1920's Era cookbooks! I'm actually about to make them today. Wish me luck! :)

Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,
And, while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column, and the cups
That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful evening in.
-- William Cowper (1731-1800)
"The Winter Evening" (Book Four), _The Task_ (1784)