Secret Agent Muffins

It blows my mind how different yeast breads and their friends can be. They all have yeast, flour, salt, a little milk or fat, and yet we have all sorts of different types. Rolls, braids, loafs... and of course, the kind that really doesn't make any sense... English muffins.

Muffins of any other kind are those hearty, breakfast, cupcake type things... but English Muffins are a whole different beast altogether. It's like part biscuit, part hand-held type bread. It's like the Gameboy of baked yeast breads... and just about everybody loves them. I just never knew until this week, just how awesome they are... homemade style. Sound crazy? Well, I am back home now, and they always say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree :) That's a compliment Mom... pretty much :)

So, we made English Muffins from scratch... yup, just like good old Mr. Thomas probably did... many, many moons ago. And if I may make a recommendation (like I guess I always do, especially on Fridays), give these a shot. They taste SO much better than their store evil twins... but you knew that already. Oh, and thanks Mom for helping working on my yeast fear. Hopefully we can take care of a few more things in the next month :)

And before I get started, these directions are a little long, so I'll paraphrase and try to keep it concise... I'm not a bread baker, but I'll try.


English Muffins
Recipe Unknown

Dry/Yeast Mixture:
- 2 cups flour
- 2 Tbsp sugar -2 tsp salt
-1 pkg dry yeast

Liquid Mixture:
- 1 3/4 cups milk
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 Tbsp butter, unsalted
-1-2 cups additional flour
-1 egg
-cornmeal for dusting

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast... set this aside. In a small sauce pan, heat the milk, water, and butter until very warm (about 120*-130*F).

Add this gradually to the dry mixture and beat on medium speed in a stand up mixer for 2-3 minutes. Add one egg and another 1 cup of flour, and beat on high for 2 minutes. Continue to add small amounts of flour so that a soft dough forms. Remove this dough from the bowl, and knead until it is smooth and elastic. If the dough is too sticky, add small amounts of flour. Place back in the bowl, cover, and let rise until it doubles... about one hour.

After it's doubled, punch it down like it called your spouse fat, cover, and let it rise back again... about 45 minutes. Punch it down again like it didn't learn it's lesson :) On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until 1/2" thickness. With a 3/4" round cutter, cut out the muffins.

Sprinkle a cookie sheet with cornmeal, and place the muffins about 1" apart from each other. Sprinkle the tops with more cornmeal. Cover and let rise again for another 45 minutes... I know but they need it.

Over low heat, lightly grease a griddle or a heavy skillet. Once the surface is hot, place the muffins with a metal spatula - be careful not to damage or deflate them - on the griddle. They will expand both up and outwards as they cook on each side. Flip over each muffin as they brown, but don't let them burn... they will get too crunchy. This takes about 5 minutes a side. Make sure each side is evenly brown, and cool them on wire racks. This recipe makes anywhere from 20-24 muffins, depending on how thick they are.

I found a newfound love for English Muffins with this recipe. There is no oven usage, and they are a perfect vehicle for any type of spread or topping. The yeast flavor is simply delicious, and they have a much chewier texture. I had to have this with fresh cranberry sauce. Other great things about this recipe are the variations you can do. Wanna go for whole wheat, honey oatmeal, onion, cheddar, sweet potato, maple, apple nut... then go for it. I think any type of bread you've ever seen or heard about would work wonders. I just went for plain old fashioned, because I had to make sure the recipe worked first.

Live once to live... live twice to live awesome.

Well, that's it for this kid. In case you haven't noticed, a bit busy with all the family/school/job search type things, but I"m still digging all the blogs and recipes. Everything looks great, so keep up the good work, good buddies :)