ENGLISH MUFFINS - PART 2

When I wrote about making English muffins last week (HERE), I promised to update when I made the second, more complicated recipe.  I wasn't overly impressed with the first recipe, and when Kelly posted a comment directing me to a recipe for English muffins that she had tried, I was tempted.  In the end, because her recipe wasn't all that different from mine, I decided to go ahead and make the more complicated recipe, so here it is - comments follow:

English Muffins

Starter


2 cups warm water
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon dry active yeast

In a medium bowl, stir together water and yeast. Let stand a couple of minutes to dissolve yeast. Stir in all purpose flour and whole wheat to make a thick batter.

Cover with a cloth and let stand at room temperature for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Sponge:

1 teaspoon dry active yeast
3/4 cup warm water (110 to 115ºF / 45ºC )
2 cups starter - room temperature
3/4 cup scalded milk, cooled to room temperature
2 cups unbleached bread flour

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the 2 cups starter (reserve remaining starter for dough), and mix well; Stir in the milk and bread flour to make a thick batter. Cover and let stand 1 hour.

English Muffins:

Sponge mixture

Remaining starter
4 cups (approximately) unbleached bread flour
4 tablespoons honey
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons dry buttermilk powder
2 tablespoons cornmeal

Stir down the sponge mixture and add the remaining starter, flour, honey, salt, buttermilk powder and cornmeal. Beat with a wooden spoon for about 5 minutes. Dough will be soft. Cover and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

Lightly deflate the dough. On a work surface sprinkled with cornmeal, roll or pat dough out to a 3/4-inch thickness. Cut into 3 1/2-inch rounds using a cookie cutter. Place on a baking sheet that's been sprinkled lightly with cornmeal, cover, and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Heat a cast iron frying pan or griddle over medium heat. Sprinkle cooking surface with cornmeal. Cook a few muffins at a time (do not crowd the pan) until bottoms are browned, about 5 to 8 minutes. Turn and brown the other side, adjust heat if muffins are browning too quickly. Transfer cooked muffins to a wire rack and cool completely.

Makes 14 to 16 English Muffins.

Okay, first of all, let me say that this recipe was hands-down the winner!  These things actually look like English muffins and taste pretty darn good too!  Let me tell you about the changes I made to the recipe.

To begin, when making bread, a slack dough will always yield a bread that's more 'airy', and since I knew I wanted all those nook and crannies that English muffins are known for, I found that I needed to use much less flour.  Actually I used about 3 1/2 cups of flour instead of four, and additionally I ended up added more water.  In the end the dough wasn't as much like a batter like the first one, but was still very slack. 

I really liked the idea of sprinkling cornmeal on the surface where the dough would be cut.  I also used a silicone sheet to minimize sticking.   I cut each round using the tuna can mold it would stay in for the rise.  I simply slid each tuna can with dough over to an empty section of the silicon mat and sprinkled a little cornmeal on top.  Eventually I ran out of tuna can molds, so I just cut the dough and left a good distance between each one, not knowing how much they'd spread during the rise. 

Although the recipe says it makes between 14 and 16, I got quite a few more than that, and some of them were pretty large - super-sized!  I'm betting that if I had used the molds for all the dough and made them all 'normal' size, I could have gotten at least 2 dozen. 

I sprinkled more cornmeal on top of each muffin, covered them with waxed paper and a towel, and left them to rise.  Even with the cornmeal and waxed paper, the muffins still wanted to stick, but it wasn't that big a problem. 

Instead of an iron skillet I used my cast iron griddle, mainly because I had so many more muffins to cook and wanted to cook as many at one time as I could.  I lightly greased the griddle, sprinkled it with cornmeal and started with the loose muffins.  Without an electric griddle it's hard to know the right temperature, but I tried to get the griddle good and hot, then turn the flame down to medium low. 

Once again my muffins took longer to cook than stated in the recipe, but maybe the heat was too low - I was concerned about getting them cooked all the way through without burning them.

When I got to the muffins that had risen in my tuna can molds, I left two in the can just to see how they'd do.  Generally I wasn't as pleased with this method - I thought these muffins would cook more quickly, due to the metal ring surrounding them, but that didn't seem to be the case.  Additionally, these muffins tended to poof out over the can as they rose, giving me an English muffin that really did look like a muffin.  Maybe that's because I had the dough too thick when I cut it, but still, although it took a little more work, I preferred to cook them out of the mold. 

I slid a bowl scraper under the muffin, still in the mold, and transferred it to the skillet  I held the mold just above the griddle and gently pushed the (sticky!) batter out of the mold, going around the edges until the batter released. 

Although I felt as if I was making English muffins for the better part of the morning, in the end I was pleased with the results and shouldn't have to repeat this process for quite a while.  Normally I have half a muffin for breakfast, but some of these are so large I think I'll get four servings instead of two.  I sliced the muffins once they were cool and put them into ziplock bags and into the freezer.  Just putting the toaster on it's longest setting is plenty to defrost and toast them whenever I'm ready!

And no - not quite as many nooks and crannies as a Thomas English muffin, but next time I'll make the dough a little more like a batter and we'll see what happens.  For now, not bad, huh?

ENGLISH MUFFINS - AN EXPERIMENT

If you live in the states, chances are you've never made English muffins. They're so easy to buy, and available in many different varieties. When we were in the states last spring, an English muffin with a smear of peanut butter and a dab of strawberry jam was my standard breakfast. I found high-fiber whole-grain muffins (Thomas) at my local grocery store, and just kept the bag in the frig until it was empty. The bag of six muffins lasted twelve days. For me, a quick, simple and nutritious breakfast is the only way to start the day.

Of course English muffins, like bagels, just don't exist in Italy. Not surprising when you consider that breakfast itself doesn't really exist here in Italy! Because most Italians eat their evening meal much later than we do in the U.S., they don't wake up hungry, and I'm guessing an espresso and a cigaret will hold them over until the 10 o'clock snack time. That's when most Italians will have a small sandwich or maybe a pastry to hold them until lunch at one.

Okay, so back to the English muffins. Honestly, I'd never thought much about how English muffins are made. I'd never needed to! After we returned to Italy at the end of May, I discovered that I really missed my English muffins, and searched the internet for recipes. Not surprisingly I found a ton a recipes and a LOT of variations. I settled on two recipes, one very, very simple, and the other a bit more complicated. My plan was to try the simple recipe first, then if I didn't like those results I'd tackle the more complicate one.

I guess the thing that surprised me most about making English muffins is that they aren't baked, they're cooked on the stovetop in an iron skillet! Somehow, even though I didn't have to turn on the oven, I just never got around to making either recipe during the summer, and all of a sudden it's November! This morning I tackled the 'easy' recipe, which takes minimal time and effort, but only produces six muffins. I can't say that I'm displeased with the results, but I'm not overwhelmed either, so I'll be trying the more complicated recipe soon. The good news about the second recipe is that although it does require a bit of advance planning (you need to make a starter the night before), it yields about three times as many muffins!

Here's the simple recipe, along with a few tips:

English Muffins (simple)

• 1/2 cup non-fat powdered milk
• 1 TBSP sugar
• 1 tsp salt- divided
• 1 TBSP shortening
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 envelope dry yeast
• 1/8 tsp sugar
• 1/3 cup warm water
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda

In a bowl combine the powdered milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, shortening, and hot water, stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Let cool.

In a separate bowl combine the yeast and 1/8 teaspoon of sugar in 1/3 cup of warm water and rest until yeast has dissolved. Add this to the dry milk mixture. Add the sifted flour and beat thoroughly with wooden spoon. Cover the bowl and let it rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes.

Preheat the griddle to medium (300ºF if using an electric griddle)

Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt to mixture and beat thoroughly. Add 1 teaspoon of baking soda just before it goes on the griddle. Place metal rings onto the griddle and coat lightly with vegetable spray. Using a scoop, place 2 scoops into each ring and cover with a greased cookie sheet and cook for 5 to 6 minutes.

Remove the cookie sheet and flip rings using tongs. Cover with the lid and cook for another 5 to 6 minutes or until golden brown. Place on a cooling rack, remove rings and cool. Split with fork and serve.

Note: Small tuna cans with tops and bottoms removed work well for metal rings.

From reading through quite a few recipes I learned that the dough needs to be VERY slack, almost like a batter, in order to ensure plenty of nooks and crannies, and hey! isn't that what English muffins are all about? Secondly, do NOT forget to grease the cookie sheet before you place it on top of the muffins - they'll rise during baking and will stick to the cookie sheet if you don't! Lastly, although this recipe doesn't call for it, I'd sprinkle the skillet with some corn meal before added the batter. This step is recommended in the other recipe, and I think it's a good idea. Lastly, my muffins took a little longer than the 5-6 minutes the recipe calls for. Also be careful on two counts: make sure the skillet isn't too hot or the flame too high since the muffins may burn on the outside before the inside is properly cooked, and make sure the batter is 'set' enough before attempting to turn them over (and yes, you really DO need to use tongs!). When I tried to turn over the last muffin in the pan it oozed out as I turned it, and I ended up with half a muffin IN the ring mold and half out of the mold! It was a great way to have something to taste, but not exactly what I had planned.