‘”I shall take the cream and the muffins”, added Amy, heroically giving up the articles she most liked.’ (Louisa May Alcott, Little Women)
Every year since I started this blog, I have written a Christmas-themed post: there have been, amongst others, mince pies from Pride and Prejudice, Christmas cake from Jane Eyre and fudge from Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales. This year, feeling that I had exhausted my knowledge of Christmas food in English Literature, I decided to look across the Atlantic to America to Louisa Alcott’s Little Women (the new film version of which, directed by Greta Gerwig, is due for release this Christmas).
Alcott’s book, originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869, must be one of the best-loved American novels. Inspired by Alcott’s own upbringing as one of four sisters, it tells of the March sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy – as they journey from childhood to adulthood in 1860s Massachusetts. Their father, a pastor, is away serving in the American Civil War, so the girls are left under the care of ‘Marmee’ to whom they are all devoted. A wise and thoughtful woman, Marmee encourages her daughters to work hard, serve others and resist the temptations of fashion and materialism.
I first read Little Women when I was about 10, and have reread it several times, most recently a couple of months ago. Whilst certain passages can seem sanctimonious, and a 21st century feminist reader may deplore the way marriage is upheld as the only viable option for women (with the strongly independent Jo accepting at the end of the novel that her literary ambitions will have to take second place to her role as Professor Bhaer’s wife), there is nonetheless no denying the radical nature of the book. In exploring women’s desire to find fulfilment through art, and in allowing her characters to marry for love not for money, Alcott articulates ideas that would have gone against the mainstream at the time.
The novel opens on Christmas Eve, with Jo complaining that ‘”Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents“‘. The family’s poverty is thus immediately highlighted, along with Marmee’s belief that a meaningful life can be found in other ways than through consumerism – as Meg, the eldest daughter, notes: ‘“You know the reason mother proposed not having any presents this Christmas, was because it’s going to be a hard winter for every one; and she thinks we ought not to spend money for pleasure, when our men are suffering so in the army.”‘
In chapter 2 it is Christmas morning. When the sisters wake up, they find that their mother has gone out to visit a poor family in the neighbourhood, leaving a small present for each of her daughters: a copy of John Bunyan’s A Pilgrim’s Progress. Often considered the first English novel, Bunyan’s book, published in 1678, is an allegorical account of the soul’s journey through the trials and tribulations of the world to heaven; in Alcott’s book it becomes a guidebook for the March sisters as they navigate their way through their world.
When Marmee returns from her visit the girls rush to see her, all ready for their Christmas breakfast – only to find that their mother wants them to make another sacrifice: ‘”Not far away from here lies a poor woman with a little newborn baby. Six children are huddled into one bed to keep from freezing, for they have no fire. There is nothing to eat over there… My girls, will you give them your breakfast as a Christmas present?”’
After a momentary pause, the girls – led by Jo – agree, and all help to gather up the food: Amy, the youngest, taking her favourite items, ‘”the cream and the muffins”’ and Meg, the eldest ‘covering the buckwheats, and piling the bread into one big plate’. They carry the food to the family and discover the joy of helping others. As the narrator notes: ‘I think there were not in all the city four merrier people than the hungry little girls who gave away their breakfasts, and contented themselves with bread and milk on Christmas morning’.
I’ve made muffins before for this blog – from Jane Austen’s Emma – but they were English muffins, yeasted breads cooked on a griddle. But nowadays the muffins we’re more familiar with are the American ones – small domed cakes, which are usually sweet and contain fruit (though you can find savoury versions). So, I’ve made American muffins as I imagine that is what the March sisters took to the poor family. I wanted there to be a Christmas theme to the muffins, so I’ve used orange, cranberries and spices to create a festive warmth.
LITTLE WOMEN’S CHRISTMAS BREAKFAST MUFFINS
Ingredients (makes 10-12):
200g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
75g caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Juice of 1 orange
50 ml buttermilk (or milk)
60g unsalted butter melted
1 large egg
50g dried cranberries
for the topping:
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200C / fan 180C / gas mark 6.
Place the flour, baking powder, sugar and nutmeg in a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until well combined.
Place the orange juice in a measuring jug and add sufficient buttermilk to make 150ml of liquid. Add the melted butter and egg, and beat to combine.
Pour the liquid ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir briefly (a lumpy batter makes light muffins). Finally fold in the cranberries.
Line a muffin tray with cases and fill with the mixture.
Mix the granulated sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over the tops of the muffins. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes until golden-brown. Eat as they are – or broken open and spread with butter.
