Tuesday, February 10, 2009

For Cecily - English Muffin Recipe

This morning I rouse myself from wintry laziness to copy this recipe down for Cecily, who is full of summer energy.
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ENGLISH MUFFINS, from the More-With-Less Cookbook

Makes 18 muffins

Heat in a saucepan until very warm (130 degrees F/54 C):

1 - 1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. butter

In large mixer bowl, combine:

2 T. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 pkg. dry yeast (or 1 T.)
1 - 1/2 c. flour

With mixer at low speed, gradually beat liquid into dry ingredients. Increase speed and beat 2 minutes, or beat vigorously by hand.

Beat in:

1 egg
1 c. flour

With spoon, add:

2 c. flour, or enough to make stiff dough

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead just until well mixed, about 2 minutes. Shape dough into a ball and place in greased [I use oil] large bowl, turning once. Cover; let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 - 1/2 hours. Punch down. Turn onto lightly floured surface; cover with bowl 15 minutes, and let dough rest.

Meanwhile, place cornmeal in a pie plate. Roll dough about 3/8" thick. Cut dough into 3" circles [I use my 3" biscuit/cookie cutter]; reroll scraps to make 18 circles [or thereabouts] in all. Dip both sides of each circle in cornmeal; place circles on cookie sheets. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. Brush large skillet with salad oil and heat. When medium hot, put in 6 muffins, cook 8 minutes on each side or until brown. [Okay, here I use my large electric skillet at 350 degrees F/177 C, and it takes from 2-4 min. on each side. They turn a nice golden brown. Because I can cook eight at a time it doesn't take long.) Repeat until all are cooked. To serve, split muffins horizontally with tines of a fork and toast.

[Note: I've added cinnamon during the dry ingredient phase, and raisins in the egg/flour phase for delicious Cinnamon-Raisin muffins. I've also added whole wheat and soaked wheat berries. Use your imagination. Make the muffins you crave!]
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Well, that didn't take long.

Now I think I need to make some more. Since my oven croaked on Sunday, this is the perfect thing to bake!

Enjoy!

14 comments:

Wandering Coyote said...

Your oven croaked? That sucks!

I'll have to bookmark this recipe, too, so I can give it a try. Thanks for the post!

Cherie said...

Yeah, it croaked on Sunday when Cassie was preheating it so she could bake a cake. Sparks, flames, noise - the element burned up. No smoke escaped, though, so the house didn't get stinky.

It's not as tragical as it appears. This cheap range has been giving me trouble for awhile. We could just replace the element but the burners are wonky, too. We'll sell or recycle it. We wanted to buy a new oven two years ago when we remodeled the kitchen but thought we'd wait until this old one bit the dust. It did. I'm happy. My new one arrives on Wednesday.

Anonymous said...

Oh, good. You're not too debilitated by the passing of the oven. I hope the new one is a good 'un!

Angela said...

i didn't know english muffins were fried. weird. i want to try baking them now.
well, not now. it's 10:30pm and that's a lot of "doubling in size" for 10:30pm.

Cherie said...

Deanna, thanks!

Angela, the things one learns from blogs, eh. Yeah, doubling in size would take until 'tomorrow' if you started that late at night.

cecily said...

For me? You wrote this for me? That is sooooo cool. I'm going to give these a go on the weekend I reckon! Thankyou. :-)

Yes, the beans turn green as they are cooked. The first photo is before, then mid process and then at the end as we ate them. Yummy.

Cherie said...

Have fun with them, Cecily! :)

tshsmom said...

Thanks for the recipe!
I always bake the loaves, but I have a recipe for a frozen pizza snack that just doesn't work well with the sliced muffin bread.

Cherie said...

I hope you'll give it a go one of these days. You and Z can create them then eat them. It's what it's all about - ;D

Sandy said...

You make your own english muffins? How wonderful! And amazing!

Cherie said...

Give 'em a try, Sandy. Quite a satisfying result, I have to say.

(And I don't make all my English muffins. Tom and the kids eat them up too quickly - it'd do me in.)

Marianne Elixir said...

The dough is rising this morning. I did a couple little substitutions, but I am hoping they turn out close to how dreamy these look and sound! A belated thank you for sharing!

Cherie said...

Yippee! I hope they turn out perfectly. Pretty easy, really. Let me know, okay?

Marianne Elixir said...

They were lovely! My boys said we should eat them every day =)

I subbed my own sprouted flour and used honey instead of sugar. I think I should have cooked them at a slightly lower heat for another minute or two, but next time they'll be perfect. My new kitchen has a griddle, so I was quite excited to be able to cook the whole batch at once!