Homemade English Muffins

Every once in a while I get an unreasonable, unstoppable, crazy need to make a specific something that I have never made before.  I have no idea why this happens, but once it does I can't rest until I make whatever it is.  This sometimes leads to flagrant violation of what is known in our house as The Chicken Fried Steak Rule (click here if you want to know), but every now and then rules are made to be broken.

Anyway, this happened to me recently with English Muffins.  I should state for the record that at the time this hit me, I had a perfectly good box of Thomas's English Muffins in my fridge.  Yep.  There's no understanding this one.  All I knew was I had to make them.    So I sat down at my computer to do some  research (and by research I mean typing "english muffin recipe" into Google) and the recipe that spoke to me was one by Alton Brown.  Most of the other recipes included hours of rising and kneading and other things I am afraid of.  Alton's took me from the starting line to finished muffins in about an hour.  And I am all about instant gratification, so this recipe was the one.  There was only one hitch...it called for English Muffin Rings.


Me: "Hi, Mom?  Have you ever heard of English Muffin Rings, 
and do you know where I could get any fast?


Mom: "I have 16 of them.  Come on over and get them."


I don't know why this keeps surprising me.

So I sped down the road, got the rings, sped back up the road.  If perchance your mom doesn't live down the road and have English Muffin rings, you can get them by clicking the link below.

English Muffin Rings

Then I started assembling my ingredients...and stalled on the first one.  Powdered milk.  Didn't have any.  But the recipe called for mixing it with water, so I thought, how bad could it be if I just used regular milk and no water.  Same thing, right?

Not the same thing.  My first batch came out like large golden hockey pucks.  I couldn't even bring myself to take a picture of them.  The dog helpfully ate one, I tossed the rest, and went back to Google, where I learned a bunch of helpful stuff about milk proteins and other things that basically added up to:  use powdered milk in this recipe the way Alton Brown tells you too.  Off to the supermarket to get powdered milk.

FINALLY I was ready to roll.  You dissolve a packet of yeast in warm water, and meanwhile mix up the powdered milk with some water, sugar, salt and shortening.  Make sure the water is pretty hot so the shortening melts, or you can give the shortening a head start by nuking it for ten seconds before you add it in.  Now add in your yeast water, and 2 cups of flour that you have very carefully measured, sifted and measured again.  You are wanting a dough that is almost like a batter.  Not as runny as pancake batter, but not as firm as bread dough.  Sticky, gooey, slightly spreadable batter-dough.  Now cover it with dishcloth and leave it in a nice warm place for 30 minutes.  I like to pop it in my oven...even if the oven isn't on, it's still kinda cozy in there.

Now comes the fun part.  Get out your griddle - Alton has an electric one and that's what's in the recipe below.  I have an old-fangled one that just goes on the stove, so I put the burners on medium-low and sprayed it with Pam.  Put the rings on the burner and give them a good Pam spritz as well.  Now take a cookie sheet and spray the bottom of that as well.  Once your griddle is heated, spoon about 1/4 cup of dough into each ring.  This will fill it up about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way, and the dough should spread a tiny bit.  Now put the cookie sheet on top of the rings, Pam side down.  This will ensure that your dough will expand sideways and not upward as it cooks.  After 5 minutes or so take off the cookie sheet and peek under one of the muffins.  As soon as they are golden, flip them over to the other side.  If they are pretty solid you can take the rings off with tongs now, or you can leave them on until they are cooked on both sides...your choice.  After another 5-8 minutes cooking on the other side they are ready to come off the griddle.  Pop them onto a cooling rack.

I spent a fair amount of time just standing there looking at the muffins on the rack.  I had made English Muffins.  I had made ENGLISH MUFFINS!  There was just one nagging question in the back of my mind.  Would there be nooks and crannies?   There needed to be nooks and crannies.  I got out my fork and split one.

Nooks and crannies!!!!

My life is somehow complete now.  Thanks for living through this with me.

Homemade English Muffins, from Alton Brown

• 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 ofsugar 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. (If you are using a regular griddle, put it on the stove burners on medium low.)

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. Place about 1/4 cup batter into each ring and cover with a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with vegetable spray and cook for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the cookie sheet 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, toast and serve.

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Eggs Benedict

I do love to mix things up recipe-wise on this blog.  Lasagna Cupcakes, Bacon Cinnamon Rolls, Chocolate Merlot Tarragon Truffles...there's really not too many culinary boundaries that I'm not willing to jump right over.  But every once in a while I get a yearning for a tried and trusted classic, and one of my favorites is Eggs Benedict.  Whenever I see it on a menu somewhere I am sucked right in like a bee to honey, and so it was only a matter of time before I had to try it right there in my kitchen. 

And whenever I get a craving for something classic, there's one site that I tend to turn to over and over, because I know I am going to find perfect, clear, utterly reliable recipes, and that is the perfectly named Simply Recipes.  While there are certainly a ton of wonderfully exotic recipes on this site, it's also a terrific resource for things that you know and love but don't yet have the perfect recipe for.  So on that day that I simply HAD to make my own eggs benedict, I made a beeline for Simply Recipes, and there it was.  Canadian bacon, poached eggs, a simple blender hollandaise...classic and scrumptious and exactly, exactly what I had in mind.

It's like finding that perfect, regular, ordinary pair of jeans.  Sometimes in a sea of low-rise-flare-boyfriend-cut-indigo-wash-jeggings, you just want a good old pair of Levi's.

Or a perfect, regular, ordinary plate of eggs benedict, right in your own kitchen.

Thanks, Simply Recipes!

Eggs Benedict, adapted just a little from the simply wonderful Simply Recipes

• 8 pieces of bacon or 4 pieces of Canadian bacon


• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, for garnish


• 4 eggs


• 2 English muffins


• Butter

Blender Hollandaise

• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter


• 3 egg yolks


• 1 Tbsp lemon juice


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• Dash of cayenne or tabasco

1. Heat a large skillet on medium low heat. Add the strips of bacon or the slices of Canadian bacon. Slowly fry, turning occasionally, until the bacon is browned on both sides, and if using strip bacon, much of the fat is rendered out (about 10 minutes). Use tongs or a fork to remove the bacon from the pan, set on a paper towel to absorb the excess fat. 
2. Make the blender hollandaise. To make blender hollandaise, melt 10 Tbsp unsalted butter. Put 3 egg yolks, a tablespoon of lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt in a blender, blend on medium to medium high speed for 20-30 seconds, until eggs lighten in color. Turn blender down to lowest setting, slowly dribble in the hot melted butter, while continuing to blend. Taste for salt and acidity and add more salt or lemon juice to taste.Transfer it to a container you can use for pouring and set it on a warm – but not hot – place on or near the stovetop.
4 Poach the eggs.  You can either do it the traditional way by slipping them gently into simmering water for about four minutes or so and then scooping them out with a slotted spoon, or you can take the easy way out the way I do and use silicone poach pods.  They are not totally authentic but they are completely reliable, which goes a long way.
5 While you are poaching the eggs in whatever way you like, toast your English muffins.
6 To assemble the eggs benedict, butter one side of an English muffin. Top with two slices of bacon or 1 slice of Canadian bacon.  Put a poached egg on top of the bacon, then pour some hollandaise over. Sprinkle some parsley over it all and serve at once.

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Tuna Cobb Salad Sandwiches

This quick and scrumptious recipe is an ode to three things.  Here they are, in no particular order.

1.  Cobb Salad.  I am SUCH a sucker for Cobb Salad. It's not like it is a rarity or anything - it's actually a frequent player on a lot of menus, but there is something about the combo of blue cheese, avocado, bacon (of course), chopped egg and lettuce that sings some kind of siren song to me.  I love it, and that's all there is to it.

2. Open-faced sandwiches.  I mean, for so many things, this is just such a logical thing.  Why spend your time putting the top of your sandwich over some deliciously messy filling only to have it spill out on to your plate with the first bite?  Open-faced sandwiches, people!  It's the only sensible way to go.

3. Sandwich Night.  Is there anything happier than Sandwich Night, especially on a Monday?  You walk into the kitchen at the end of the day and suddenly you feel wonderfully free!

Okay, now that I have gotten all THAT out of my system, let's get down to it.  This is a quick and different version of cobb salad with a special guest star, and that is tuna fish.  And a surprise twist, which is that that blue cheese is not actual blue cheese (which I sometimes find can take over a cobb salad with it's super-strong taste), but blue cheese salad dressing.  Splurge and use one of the nice ones you can usually find in the refrigerated section of your supermarket - it's worth it for this recipe, and you can always use the leftover as a nice dip.  The tuna and the dressing get mixed up with the usual cast of characters from cobb salad - avocado, chopped egg and (yes!) bacon.  But instead of tossing it all together with lettuce, you lightly toast a couple of English muffins, lay on some chopped lettuce and a slice or two of tomato, and then top with the tuna mixture.

A little ground pepper, and you have a Sandwich Night to be proud of.

 Tuna Cobb Salad Sandwiches, adapted from Betty Crocker's Smart Cook : The Essential Everyday Cookbook 

• 
  
• One 6.5 ounce can tuna, drained
• 4-6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 chopped hard-boiled eggs
• 1 avocado, peeled and cut into small cubes
• 1/3 cup good quality blue cheese dressing
• Shredded lettuce
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 2 English muffins, split and toasted
• Fresh ground pepper

1. Mix tuna, bacon, eggs, avocado and dressing.
2.  Place tomato and lettuce on each muffin and top with tuna mixture.  Grind some fresh pepper on top.

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Egg Sandwich with Spinach, Brie and Maple Bacon

Things I love in life:

1. Bacon

2. The Southern husband

3. Brie

4. English muffins

5. Baby Spinach

6. Noisy, disobedient but lovable dogs

7. Eggs, over easy

8. Noisy, disobedient but lovable teenagers.

Five of these things are part of the sandwich we had for dinner tonight.  (And by the way, don't you love sandwiches-for-dinner night? I do.  Add that to the above list.)

I won't lie to you, this is a messy one to eat, but man, is it worth every single drip and spatter.  You toast up the muffins and while they are still warm, spread on some nice soft Brie.  Yes, on both sides.  Let them sit there while you slather some maple syrup on the bacon and cook it in the oven.  While the bacon is cooking, saute some baby spinach until it is nice and soft, and then cook up some eggs, over easy - as hard or soft as you like.  I like soft, myself.  

Now slide the egg onto the bottom half of the muffin, lay some spinach over the egg, and a couple of maple bacon pieces over the spinach.  Pop the other muffin half on top.  At this point, the heat of everything is going to start turning that cheese into a melty sauce of molten Brie, and you may start to weep a little in anticipation.  This is normal.   Now sit down and get ready to eat the best egg sandwich in the world.

The best!

Egg Sandwich with Spinach, Brie and Maple Bacon

• Two strips bacon, each cut in half
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups baby spinach
• One English muffin, split
• 2 large slices of Brie cheese, softened
• One egg
• 1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat oven to 425.  Cover baking sheet (use one with sides) with foil and lay bacon on top. Brush with maple syrup.  Bake for 10 minutes or until bacon is done to your liking.

2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in skillet and saute spinach until wilted, about 2 minutes.  Cover with skillet cover and set aside.

3. Toast English muffin and as soon as it is toasted, spread both sides with cheese.

3. Heat butter in second small skillet over medium heat until melted.  Fry egg until yolk is soft set. Flip and cook another minute longer.

4. Lay egg on bottom of English muffin.  Top with spinach.  Cover spinach with bacon.  Cover with top of English muffin.

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