English Muffins

Little-known fact (at least to me...), but the 'muffin man' in the nursery rhyme refers to a purveyor of English muffins rather than the heavier variety of muffins widely made today at places like Tim Hortons.  Back in the early 19th-century, the muffin man was a common sight.  It would seem that everyone knew the muffin man in Jane Austen's England.  I came across a recipe for Homemade English muffins on Michael Ruhlman's blog recently that I decided to have a go at.  Below is the play-by-play from our home English muffin factory.

Homemade English Muffins

(from Ruhlman.com)

60g unsalted butter

1 tbsp sugar

450g milk

7-8g dry active yeast

1 large egg

450g all-purpose flour

7g salt

2 tsp baking powder dissolved in 1 tbsp water

cornmeal (for dusting

Step 1:  Dissolve the sugar and butter in a small saucepan.  Easy enough.

Step 2:  Add the milk and stir it into the sugar/butter mixture.  I left it on the stove until the milk warmed up slightly (lukewarm) and then removed the saucepan from the element.

Step 3:  Stir in the yeast and the egg.  Done.  It doesn't dissolve completely, but seems fine.

Step 4:  Mix the flour and salt in a medium-to-large size mixing bowl.

Step 5:  Add the milk mixture and stir until well combined.  This is before stirring ...

Step 5 (cont.):  ... and this is after stirring.  Exciting stuff.

Step 6:  Cover and let it sit for 1-1.5 hrs.  After 90 minutes the dough should have almost doubled in size.  Immediately before cooking, stir in the baking powder dissolved in water.  The dough will collapse (not a problem).  The picture below is after stirring.

Step 7:  Heat a medium cast-iron skillet on medium to medium-low heat, dust with cornmeal, and scoop 1/4-1/2 cup portions of dough onto the skillet.   You can use a round 3" english muffin form to set the initial shape (we used a biscuit cutter as a substitute).  Cook for 14-20 minutes.  The main problem we had was that we had to flip them frequently to keep the crusts from burning (which happened quite fast in the skillet).   We ultimately went with skillet time of 12-15 minutes and finished the muffins with another 5-10 minutes in the oven at 425*F, which seemed to work well.

Step 8:  Muffins cooling.  

Step 9:  Eat toasted with butter, jam, the newspaper, slippers, a labrador retriever at your feet, a rainy day outside, etc.

Very pleased with the result.  Check out Michael's blog for more great recipes.

Scones

My wife has English parents and is a bit of an Anglophile. Pride and Prejudice (the original BBC / Colin Firth version) is on constant re-run at home. We spend more on tea than on coffee. She has a deep love affair with scones and jam. Hence her delicious creations below. It's a very quick recipe.

Sweet-Milk Scones

(from Cooks Illustrated)

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1-2 tablespoons granulated sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup whole milk

1. Pre-heat oven to 450*F

2. Mix flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, table salt and granulated sugar in a food processor using the pulse setting.

3. Using the dough knife attachment, mix in the butter until only a few slightly larger butter lumps remain.

4. Pour milk into food processor and pulse until dough starts to gather into a rough ball. The dough is quite dry and crumbly at this point. Turn on a floured work surface.

5. Roll the dough to 1/2 - 3/4 inch thick. Using a biscuit cutter (lightly greased; we used a 2-inch shape) cut scones out of the rolled dough. Gather and re-roll the dough scraps when you run out of surface area and cut more scones until there's no longer enough dough to roll into a 1/2 - 3/4 inch thick slab.

6. Place the cut-out scones onto a baking sheet. We buttered the tops of half of the scones at this point to see how they would turn out (good result - tops became more crust-like). Cook for 10 to 12 minutes in the oven (or until slightly brown). Serve with tea and jam.

Scone army.

Very delicious and crumbly. Ours ended up being quite small. Would recommend a larger shape (3-4 inch biscuit cutter vs. the 2 inch that we used).

Brioche

Lisa and I were in William's Sonoma a few weeks ago partaking in their free samples of seasonal mulled cider and I spotted small brioche forms. Lisa loves brioche, and there are three great variants of the recipe in Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice so last weekend was my maiden voyage into the world of brioche baking.

Brioche dough is very heavy on butter. Kneading in four sticks of room temperature unsalted butter was not the world's most pleasant experience. I would recommend using a mixer if you have one. Our mixer's name is Rob.

Half-filled petite brioche forms. The dough rises nicely once it warms up to room temperature. After approx. 2 hrs of proofing they fill the forms.

Baked and cooling.

Close-up.

Crumb. Soft and delicious.

The recipe calls for a somewhat industrial quantity of brioche. We were able to make 12 petite brioche and a loaf of brioche, most of which we ended up giving away to family. My nephews were very excited by the 'croissant bread'.