English Muffins

I just realized I had this one done and forgot to publish it.

Risen Dough

Believe it or not 4th year of university is very time consuming, hence my lack of posts as of late. School is all done now so I will have a lot more time for cooking. I had high hopes for this week, english muffins were something that I had wanted to make for a long time. Unfortunately, they did not turn out very well.

First a little bit on muffins. Muffin comes from the Old French word mofle which means soft. In England a muffin refers to a yeast risen dough cooked on a griddle while the North American muffin is a quick bread baked in an oven. A quick bread is any batter that is leavened by chemical agents (baking powder or soda). Baking powder is a relatively new invention so our concept of a muffin is much more modern than the English muffin. As I am sure everyone knows English muffins are very versatile as far as toppings and applications. They can be made into sandwiches for breakfast or otherwise, the childhood favourite English muffin pizzas or just eaten with butter.

Mangled Can for Mold

Alton Brown said the key to making these muffins correctly was heat management and boy was he right! The dough is fairly standard besides the addition of powdered milk. The recipe calls for a greater powder to water ratio then the manufacturer recommands, this way the muffins can have more of the milks proteins and sugars without additional liquid. I will be honest I did not buy powdered milk because I could only find huge bags and what else am I going to do with it? The recipe says to cook on an electric griddle that has a thermostat to control the temperature. I don't have one of these so I thought I could pull it off on a standard pan... nope. I burned the tops and bottoms without cooking the middle at all. Another failure for me was using a can as a cooking mold. Tuna cans can be used while the muffin is cooking so they keep the round shape. The problem was that the tuna cans have bottoms that are not supposed to be opened. One broken can opener later I managed to get the bottom off the can but it sure wasn't pretty.

Burned on the outside, raw in the middle

I would like to give this another shot sometime when I actually had the right tools for the job. The muffins did not go to waste though, they became a bread pudding.

Verdict: give it another try.

Recipe: English Muffins

Dutch Baby

View From the Lunar Surface

This blog post is dedicated to Noah, sorry for taking so long between posts. A Dutch baby is like a really airy pancake type creation that is baked in the oven. Technically it is a popover so think more Yorkshire pudding than pancake. The origins of the dish and the naming are a little mirky. The story goes that it was invented at Manca's cafe in Seattle, sometime in the first half of the 20th century. The owner even had the name Dutch baby trademarked in 1942 but it did little good, the restaurant closed in 1950. The dish was based on a German style pancake and named by the daughter of Manca's cafe's owner. Mispronouncing the German "Deutsch" they became Dutch and not German babies. Does this part of the story sound familiar? ... Pat yourself on the back if you were thinking of the creators of just about every American dessert, the Pennsylvania Dutch. The Pennsylvania Dutch, really the Pennsylvania Deutsch were missed labelled by early American settlers thinking they were saying they were Dutch and not Deutsch. They are responsible for everything from angel food cake, to funnel cake to just about every version of cobbler. Now that detour is over I have to say I loved this recipe! I made one while I was home alone and ended up eating the whole thing... and did the same thing the next night. Partly because the recipe, from The Joy of Cooking, calls for so much butter the pan was still has enough butter in it to make another. The real key to a Dutch Baby is cast iron of some kind and preheating the pan. When the batter hits the preheated pan it sets the bottom and creates a lot of steam which pushed the center up. It's really puffy in the oven but once you take it out and cut into it the puff will fall quickly, but don't worry it will still taste really yummy. The toppings options are endless, fruit, canned pit filling, whip cream. I just went pretty simple with some syrup and some homemade apple sauce. If you are not by yourself I would recommend making many, they will be gobbled up quick.

Verdict: Would make again for sure!

Crepes

Crepes... well sort of

Crepes, the French classic, is nothing more than a very thin unleavened pancake. Crepes are usually filled with savory or sweet fillings and topped with a sauce of some type. There is a definite technique to crepe making that takes some practice. I had made crepes a couple of times before I was fairly confident with the technique. The recipe and I both agreed on how the crepes were to be constructed, drop a little batter into a greased pan and swirl it off the heat until the bottom of the pan is covered. Then return to the heat for a few seconds and flip. After a few more seconds both sides will be set and the crepe can be removed from the pan. I can just about guarantee that there will be some hiccups along the way. Don't worry they still taste great no matter how ugly they look. Which brings me to my attempt. As you can see my the picture it was not a pretty scene! No matter how much butter I put down I could still not get the crepes to not stick and bunch up. I even switched pans but to no avail. I have never had this problem with crepes before, I don't know if it was the recipe or if I was just having a bad day or what. I followed the recipe to the letter, even using a blender to combine the ingredients (more on this soon). I pretty much just mashed my crepes up with some peanut butter and syrup and went to town. They still tasted great!

Crepe Batter

Now to the blender thing. The recipe calls for the use of a blender because the ingredients can be combined very fast, preventing too much gluten from forming. Gluten is the elasticy protein that gives bread its chew, not what you want in crepes. After blending the batter must sit for an hour or so to allow any air bubbles to escape. Air bubbles in the batter could cause a small amount of lift that would be unwanted for crepes.

I feel a little scatter brained on this post, somewhat like I did while I was making the crepes. I would try this recipe again as well as the other crepe recipes I have used to try to narrow down the cause of the problem.

Verdict: Would try one more time.

Crepe Recipe

Cornbread (Corn Muffins)

Cornbread is synonymous with the cuisine of the Southern United States. It is often served as a side dish to traditional BBQ classics like ribs and pulled pork but its origins date back thousands of years. Cornbread is actually just about American (North American technically) as you can get. Native Americans have been harvesting corn for thousands of years and cornmeal cakes were a staple of many tribes' diets. Though the idea of cornbread is very old the version that we think of today is distinctly modern. Baking powder, the leavening agent of cornbread, was not invented until 1843 and was not widely used until the 1900s. Today there are several variations in ingredients and cooking techniques but any quick bread leavened with baking powder and containing cornmeal can be called cornbread. One of the most popular forms is baking in a cast iron skillet. The skillet is preheated so that the batter starts to cook right away, creating a crispy crust. I still have not got around to seasoning my skillet so I went with corn muffins. I still preheated the muffin pan but ,being aluminum, it did not hold heat like cast iron would have. By the time I had scooped all the muffins the pan had pretty much returned to room temperature. This recipe comes from The Joy of Cooking, one thing about this book is they often say things like, "2 or 3 eggs." This can be good if you are short an egg you know you can still get by but when the recipe isn't totally perfect it leaves you wondering if it would have made a difference. Overall the corn muffins were decent but I found them kind of dry. Also the recipe said use vegetable oil, shortening or bacon fat; having some bacon fat on hand I obviously used that. Disappointingly it was not noticeable in the final product. There are a lot of variables that could be the cause of the dryness so I will have to revisit this recipe at some point.

Verdict: Would make again with some variations.

Pancakes

To me pancakes seemed like they were always the same no matter if they were made from scratch or out of a box. Making these pancakes with a specific recipe and more carful (than usual) technique proved this assumption wrong.

Pancakes fall into the quick bread category of baked goods, meaning they rise quickly through the use of chemical leaveners. Pancakes contain a few simple ingredients, all with interesting properties to add. Buttermilk for example is slightly acidic and therefore helps to stop gluten from forming. Gluten is a hot topic these days as many people try to remove it from their diets. Gluten is a wheat protein that is responsible for the chewiness of many yeast leavened breads like baguettes. The chew is definitely a highlight in a baguette but not something we want in our pancakes. Gluten is present in flour from the start, it is only when it is agitated in the presence of water that things get chewy. That is why it is important to not over stir quick bread batters. That includes muffins, many cakes and of course pancakes.

I am really warming up to the idea of taking baking measurements by weight, the couple of recipes I have made using the scale have come together so much better than before I can only conclude that the scale is the deciding factor. The pancake batter came out to be the perfect consistency, not too thick and not too runny. I am a notoriously bad at flipping pancakes and the like so this time I was determined to make some nice looking pancakes. I used the biggest pan we had on medium heat (which is rare for me) and only one pancake at a time. With only one pancake in the pan at a time it was really easy to flip without hitting the sides or another pancake. The pancakes themselves were really fluffy and delicious definitely worth the little extra effort of making them from scratch. The recipe is set up to make your own "instant pancake mix," so it makes enough for about three batches. I am definitely going to keep some of this pancake mix in stock. I am interested to try it using milk instead of buttermilk. I have never really tasted the difference buttermilk makes and I hate having things in the fridge that I really only bought for one purpose. The only potential problem is the acidity of the buttermilk reacts with the chemical leaveners in the dry ingredients to produce carbon dioxide which causes the pancake to rise. Regular milk is less acidic so will produce less of a reaction. I think the effects will be negligible but we will have to so.

Verdict: Would make again.

Pancake Recipe

Cocoa Brownies

I would like to start this post with a public service announcement. If you make these brownies you will need to cut yourself a piece to test them out. For scientific purposes of course. Finding that they are delicious you will yourself a real piece this time. Finding this piece also delightful you go for just one more little tiny piece. Stop! put down the brownie! You were about to give yourself the dreaded stomach brick feeling. You know that feeling when you eat too much rich food and it feels like there is a brick sitting at the bottom of your stomach. You have been warned, I ended up in this predicament twice!

As you may have guessed this one is not for the faint of heart when it comes to chocolate and big time desserts; this sucker is dense! The density comes from the fact that there are no chemical leaveners (baking soda, baking powder) at all. The only lift, and a really small amount at that, comes from four lightly beaten eggs. I have not made a ton of brownies in my life but this recipe seemed a little odd compared to what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be a muffin method recipe, where the wet and dry ingredients are mixed separately then combined at the end. The dry ingredients were mixed together separately from the eggs but the butter was added at the end after being melted. This could be more common for brownie recipes then I realize and I have no complaints about the recipe. This was also the first time I have used a scale to measure ingredients by weight instead of volume. I got a fancy scale for Christmas and this was its maiden voyage. Many chefs swear by the scale since it can give a much more accurate measurement then using measuring cups. To be honest I didn't notice much difference besides the fact the I didn't have to convert measurements in ounces to cups, which was very nice.

Overall impression of this recipe was very good. It yields a dense and very chocolately brownie that will sure satisfy any chocolate craving. Milk is highly recommended as an accompaniment, or maybe some vanillin ice cream.


Verdict: Would make again for sure. I would just watch how many I ate!

Recipe: Cocoa Brownies Recipe