Monday, May 15, 2006

Homemade Nooks and Crannies

The dogs had me up early on Saturday morning so I thought I would experiment and make English Muffins from scratch. This wasn't just out of the blue, I had bought the ring molds and have been meaning to give this a try for a while. There are a lot of recipes out there, but I based mine on Alton Brown's from Food Network (see below for recipe).

They are made with a yeast mixture - in between a thick batter and a really sticky dough .


The muffins are shaped in round molds and can either be cooked on a griddle or in the oven.


Here is one of the first ones made


Forked open ~ Success! nooks & crannies!


Toasted and slathered with butter


Click Here For Printable Recipe
(do you guys like this idea? including printable recipe files? let me know!)

English Muffins Recipe courtesy Alton Brown
Show: Good Eats
Episode: The Muffin Man

1/2 cup non-fat powdered milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon shortening
1 cup hot water
1 envelope dry yeast
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup warm water
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
Non-stick vegetable spray

In a bowl combine the powdered milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, shortening, and hot water, stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Let cool. In a separate bowl combine the yeast and 1/8 teaspoon of sugar in 1/3 cup of warm water and rest until yeast has dissolved. Add this to the dry milk mixture. Add the sifted flour and beat thoroughly with wooden spoon. Cover the bowl and let it rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes.
Preheat the griddle to 300 degrees F.

Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt to mixture and beat thoroughly. Place metal rings onto the griddle and coat lightly with vegetable spray. Using #20 ice cream scoop, place 2 scoops into each ring and cover with a pot lid or cookie sheet and cook for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the lid and flip rings using tongs. Cover with the lid and cook for another 5 to 6 minutes or until golden brown. Place on a cooling rack, remove rings and cool. Split with fork and serve .

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now I'm beyond impressed. Remember when Angelic's dad made the pancakes from scratch? Well I'm more impressed than that. mom

Anonymous said...

I like the printing idea...is it too much work for you?

Jenn S. said...

Its not too much work, but I wouldn't bother if no one was interested. The easiest way for me to do it is to make them into picture files - hopefully that works for everyone.

Anonymous said...

I would have preferred your muffins over our brunch. From now on it's LaMela's for me on Mother's Day. The muffins are absolutely mouth watering! Did you freeze some, or eat them all? I would have eaten them for sure.
Jeanne

Jenn S. said...

We did have a few left and did freeze them. Hopefully they will keep.