Hello interwebs.
I'm in the process of some mental rehabilitation, and attempting to back into a structured existence. This involves both baking and blogging, so this post seems like a pretty decent way to start. Cue picture:
Today I saw a post on G+ by my friend Florian who has just made an impressive looking first ever batch of English muffins, and it occurred to me that I haven't made any myself for a while. Being such a traditional foodstuff, there are, of course, many recipe variations on the muffin, but I was still intrigued by the differences in the recipe Florian was using, and thought I'd offer my own for comparison.
Ingredients:
- 8 fl oz/225ml milk
- 2 tsp dried yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1lb/450g all purpose/plain flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2oz/55g lard
Method:
- Put the milk and 2 fl/oz/55ml water into a saucepan and heat gently until just warm enough for you to dip your finger in comfortably. Put the warmed milk into a small basin or jug, add the sugar and the yeast, mix lightly and leave in a warm place for about 15 minutes and the mixture has a lightly bubbling top.
- Sift the flour into a roomy baking bowl, add the salt and stir. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour the yeast and milk mixture in. Mix all the ingredients together until a soft, non-sticky dough is formed; if the dough feels dry a little add more water a drop at a time, too wet add a little more flour.
- Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Put the dough back into the baking bowl, cover with a clean, dry tea towel and leave in a warm (not hot) place until the dough has doubled in size, this could take up to an hour, so be patient.
- Once risen, tip the dough back onto the floured surface and roll out to ½ inch/1cm thick. Cut into 3 inch/7.5cm rounds. The dough may start to puff up again but simply roll it back to ½ inch. Place the muffins on a greased baking sheet and leave to rise for 30 minutes, again in a warm, but not hot, place.
- Grease a heavy-based frying pan or griddle with a little lard, heat until hot but not burning. Add a few muffins, lower the heat and cook for 7 minutes on each side. Once cooked, put to one side, re-grease the pan or griddle and heat, then continue as above until you have used up all the dough.
I find this works pretty well, although I did like the look of Florian's recipe, so I think I may do a batch of each sometime and see which the family prefer.
As to storage and consumption, store them in an airtight tin and they will last a couple of days, after which they should be okay for a couple more as long as they're toasted, and why would you eat them untoasted anyway? To be honest, I feel the only way to eat them is to tear them open (don't cut them if you can help it), toast them and add lots of yummy butter and the preserve of your choice - marmalade or lemon curd for me. Alternatively, they work well with bacon and/or egg.
