Wednesday, May 18, 2005

English Muffin Wednesday

I bought some fresh yeast this past Friday, remember when I went to buy some lard for the tortillas I've been meaning to make. Since Lard has a very long shelf life, I will get to those tortillas soon! I promise.

No fresh bread in the house, to lazy to walk to the Boulangerie and with a stash of fresh yeast means that I start to search through my favorite bread recipes. I stumbled on an old standby, English Muffins.
Pretty easy prep, one rise, a quick shape and a bench rise of about 30 minutes and I'm on my way to fresh baked heaven.

I use a crepe pan to cook my muffins, I don't have a griddle.
Hmmmmmm......Should I put that on my list?
After the muffins are firm to the touch (Not on the top of the muffin, but on the sides. It is slow process and the muffins will 'tell' you when they are cooking too fast) they will finish 'steaming' in a ziplock with a nice clean cotton dish towel. I'll freeze some and toast the rest during the week.

I'll post the recipe, but I'm using a "King Arthur" I swiped off the 'net. Substituting 20g's of fresh yeast instead of the yeast they use.

I love the taste of the muffins, toasted with unsalted butter and some Poire with Vanilla Confiture from the Ferme de Gally.

9 comments:

shuna fish lydon said...

I have a secret affection for english muffins and want to change the world with them. the ones I make are not so simple but I have worked on them for years and have taken copius notes. I find that the amount of yeast really depends on the weather, as it is important to push the dough so that it needs as little yeast as possible.
I like your blog very much.

Banlieue Blog said...

Shuna.....the next time you get the urge to fashion a batch of English Muffins..I hope you 'docu-blog' the event! I'd love to take a look!
You are the real deal!
All the best!
Melissa

Nic said...

I've wanted to try making a batch of these (the K.A. ones) with my sourdough starter. Not that I've had a bad recipe from King Arthur yet, but I'm glad to hear it's a good one.

Banlieue Blog said...

Nic,
Would love to see your results! Let me know!

Anonymous said...

I made English Muffins last week and they were just fabulous. You make the dough the night before and leave it on the bench to rise while you sleep, shape the muffins in the morning and cook. They were unbelievably easy and so good to eat for breakfast.

Banlieue Blog said...

Barbara--I haven't let that particular dough have the luxury of an overnight 'ferment'. You leave it out (room-temp) overnight? not a cold-rise?
Sounds like more flavor and more holes in the finished product!
I'll have to give that a try!

Anonymous said...

Yes Melissa leave it at room temperature overnight. I'll be making the muffins this week and will post the recipe on my blog.

Anonymous said...

Hi Melissa
Heres my English Muffins.
http://winosandfoodies.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/06/english_muffins.html

Unknown said...

I loooooooooooooove making English Muffins. The recipe I stole came with my cookbook software. They list it on their site at Cookbookpeople.com.
Here's the link:
http://www.cookbookpeople.com/free-recipes/bread/english-muffins-recipe.htm