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!