Using What I Have Journal Entry #14: English Muffins
I have tendencies to overbuy when I visit grocery stores. I am getting better, but I'm also not all the way to where I want to be yet. One of the solutions I've found, for now, is to just not go shopping if I can figure out some way to get through a week without it. I don't mean by having emergency-only food (one can't live on saltines alone), but rather by ensuring a balanced meal plan. It is one of the ways I'm gradually learning to buy less, because the time between shopping trips can really stretch.
And that is why, as I avoided shopping when I was completely out of bread and kind of wanted English muffins, I chose to just make English muffins.
I'd never made them before, though I've wanted to for a long time. I was annoyed by most recipes, which seemed to require me to have breakfast 3 hours after I get up, minimum, with all the resting and rising. I couldn't find a recipe online that had an option to stick the dough in the fridge overnight, but I did find one in a cookbook from the 1970s that included that. (You really need 20th century cookbooks, sometimes. Those people didn't have fancy equipment or difficult-to-get ingredients, for the most part.) The 1970s version had me cut the muffins and then stick a pan in the fridge overnight, which I pulled out to "bake" on the stove in the morning.
They were pretty easy to make, all things considered, and they tasted good, because homemade breads basically always taste good. But these are not the kind with nooks and crannies, which I think relies on baking powder (and is why you can't have them resting in the fridge overnight, I assume). So they weren't exactly what I was going for.
Also, I had a few that looked really weird, made from the dough that had to be pieced together again after the first cutting, but that was fine; they still tasted good.
I stuck some of my muffins in the fridge for later, and made it through another week without shopping.
You're 100% right about checking certain types of 20th century cookbooks for some of the tricks that normal people used to make their own breakfast baked goods! Also, yes, fewer esoteric ingredients...
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with any baking powder english muffin recipes; I think the open crumb is usually accomplished via yeast; but by what magic? I do not know for english muffins, as the last time I made them was a... long... time ago and have no recollection of the recipe, but from other bread behaviors, I'd bet the secret is high-hydration, higher-gluten, low/non-fat dough that is given at least a bit of a chance to rise between shaping and cooking and is then exposed to high heat for "oven spring" [which you can get with sliding things onto a preheated cast iron pan - you don't need an actual oven for high heat exposure]? An "open crumb" [a la fancy bakery breads, where there are holes you could potentially stick a peanut in] instead of a "tight crumb" [pound cake is probably the epitome, but most quickbreads and some sandwich breads; also certain types of bagels] would probably be the terminology to search for if you want to get really nerdy about english muffins [which you 100% do not need to want].
It's possible you could tweak the 70s recipe for slightly higher hydration and gluten for your next round of spontaneous english muffins, and, rather than moving the pan from the fridge to the stove [which would inevitably result in the muffins heating up slowly, as the pan heats up, instead of quickly], instead have the muffins rise in the fridge on a piece of foil on top of a cutting board, and you'd then slide the foil+muffins off the cutting board into a preheated pan for the "oven spring" effect?
But also that sounds like a pain, and they might deflate with being moved, and good enough is plenty good enough, and these look delicious! So. Congratulations on your English Muffins from 20th century-style scratch. :-)
Thanks! I did pull the dough out about an hour or so before "baking" them, so that isn't it--but I might not have had a wet enough dough. More to think about.
DeleteSo interesting to read about your English Muffin experience. Love English muffins and have had a couple of not-so-successful attempts to achieve those lovely pockets and air holes. Reading your post made me think about how I make an airy, pocket-filled focaccia: I let the dough rest overnight at room temp. Going to try that with my English muffin recipe. And lest we forget: crumpets, full of air tunnels, are worth making, as well. Texture is uber important! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI worry the English muffins would overproof if they were left out overnight that way, but I might be able to try that on a cool night, maybe?
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