These are the best muffins that I have ever had. It's rather up there with Coco's, but not as sweet. Anything goes in a muffin, no exception with this one. The first muffin recipe, found in Hannah Glasse's 1747 book, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, begins, To a bushel of Hertfordshire white flour, take a pint and a half of Good Ale Yeast. Read more ... Obviously, Hannah was cooking for a crowd. Muffins, at first a purely English specialty, gradually made their way to America, and by 1899 Theodore Francis Garrett was able to write, in his The Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery, It has been claimed for the British baker that he alone can make a muffin; but it is almost to be feared, if this were ever so that the prestige has been passed over to America, where muffins are made of various flours, and so light and digestible that it is a question if they are not rather an American dish. Mention muffins today, and you'll conjure up visions of blueberry, date-nut, cranberry or other fruit muffins. Sweet summer fruits are a wonderful addition to a basic muffin batter; the following version teams cherries and almonds, a fruit and nut that were made for one another.