Summer is finally here, I've returned from Berkeley, and now I've got time to cook and bake again! Carsten requested a "gourmet sandwich" for dinner the other night, with homemade bread. With only half a day to work with, I decided not to try and bake a real loaf of bread. Good bread requires a bit more time. Instead, I decided to try my hand at these English muffins I'd been eying for quite some time. Back in college, Carsten and I found this cookbook, which we referred to often for our Sunday brunches. But we never got around to trying out this particular recipe. They turned out super delicious! A little sweeter and slightly more biscuit-like than store bought muffins, but I think I prefer them this way!
I ended up serving them for dinner with fresh mozzarella, arugula, tomatoes, and a balsamic reduction. It was delicious, however I still preferred them the simple way: toasted with butter (and maybe some of the chai infused honey I just bought up in San Francisco!).
Dathan, who is the master of Eggs Benedict, will be staying with us for the month of August! He is doing a rotation out here at Loma Linda, and we're so excited to have him. We'll have to make these again when he comes, so he can dazzle us with his egg poaching skills :)
I apologize for the horrible pictures... I only had my phone around :/
Be warned though, while this cook book has many good ideas, I'm pretty sure the portion sizes are all wrong -- not just on this particular recipe. For example, this recipe says "Yield: 8 muffins" However, following the recipe exactly, we made 16!! I should have guessed when I read "8 cups of flour..."
Ingredients
make about 16 muffins
1 Tbs yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups warm milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup powdered sugar
8 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
Procedure
In a medium mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water and milk. Let stand for 5 minutes, until foamy. Add the melted butter, eggs, and powdered sugar, and mix well. In a separate large mixing bowl, combine flour and salt. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, and mix well with your hands. Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and knead for 4 to 6 minutes.
Gently pat the dough down until about 1/2 inch thick. Use a 3-inch round cookie cutter to cut as many muffins as you can. Combine the scraps, and continue to cut more muffin rounds until there is no more dough. Sprinkle your surface with cornmeal, and set muffins about 1 inch apart. Let rise for 1 hour.
Heat a greased skillet over low to medium low heat. (I have a gas stove, and had to have mine as low as possible. I also had two skillets going at once, to speed up the process). Cook the muffins about 7 minutes per side, until golden brown. If your muffins are turning deep golden brown before 7 minutes, try lowering the heat. Let muffins cool on a wire wrack.
To serve, split muffins with a fork, or with your hands (this will give that classic muffin texture, which cannot be achieved by slicing with a knife!) and toast in the toaster.
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