English Muffins

I LOVE…LOVE…LOVE…ENGLISH MUFFINS!  Like obsessively love english muffins.  But they are so stinking pricey at the grocery store.  I cannot express how excited I was to find a recipe and be able to make them at home.  Yes I did a little happy dance.  We have all done a happy dance over food at some point in time.  The one thing that I was most surprised to learn about making english muffins is that they are cooked on a griddle.  How cool is that?

What is it about english muffins that I love so much you ask?  They are chewy and fluffy at the same time.  They have knooks and crankys that hold and soak up all the butter and jam you lay on them and they are just wonderful.  A million times better then any piece of toast.

First combine all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Add the milk to the bowl and mix together at low speed, until it forms into a ball, using a paddle attachment.   I decided to use buttermilk because I thought it would make the muffins fluffier and give them a nice sour touch.

Change the attachment to a dough hook and knead at medium speed for about 8 minutes.  Sprinkle flour as needed until tacky and,

until you get a windowpane effect when you stretch out the dough.

Oil the bowl and allow the dough to rise, covered with plastic wrap for 60 to 90 minutes or until it doubles in size.

Flatten the dough out to 1 1/2 inches.  Using a biscuit cutter, cut the muffins out.

Place the muffins on a baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise 60 to 9o minutes or until doubled in size.

Pre-heat oven at 350 degrees and brush flat griddle with vegetable oil and heat at 350 degrees.  Cook muffins on griddle for 5 to 8 minutes.

Or until the bottoms begin to brown without burning.

Flip the muffins and cook the other side for 5 t0 8 minutes.  Then transfer to baking sheet and bake for an additional 5 to 8 minutes.

Transfer to cooking rack to let cool.

Use a fork to split them open, lather them with butter, or jam or make some eggs benedict.  YUM!  Whatever you decided to do with these english muffins you will enjoy them, because they are delicious and homemade.

I am enjoying a toasted english muffin with strawberry jam as I write this….and I may have to have another.  I LOVE ENGLISH MUFFINS!

Print Recipe

English Muffins (adapted from Baker’s Apprentice)

about 1 dozen (depending on size)

• 2 1/4 unbleached bread flour
• 1/2 Tbs granulated sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 1 Tbs shorting or unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3/4 to 1 cup milk or buttermilk, at room temperature
• cornmeal for dusting

In a mixing bowl stir together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast.   Using an electric mixer mix in shortening and 3/4 cup of milk, with paddle attachment at low speed until the ingredients form a ball.  If there is loose flour in the bowl dribble in remaining 1/4 cup of milk.  The dough should be soft and pliable.

Sprinkle counter with flour and transfer dough to counter.  Knead doug for 10 minutes, if using stand mixer use dough hook and mix for 8 minutes.   Spinkle with flour as needed to make tacky.  The dough should pass the windowpane test.  Lightly oil bowl and transfer dough to bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for 60 to 90 minutes, or until double in size.

When dough has raised, transfer to counter and press or roll out to 1 1/2 inch think.  Using a biscuit cutter, cut out muffins.  Roll out scraps and repeat, do not roll out more then once.  Sprinkle cookie sheet with corn meal and place muffins on sheet, sprinkle corn meal over muffins, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 60 to 90 minutes.

Heat flat griddle to medium or 350 degrees, also pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Brush the griddle with vegetable oil or mist with spray oil.  Transfer muffins to griddle and cook for 5 to 8 minutes, or until the bottom of the dough cannot cook any longer without burning.  Flip the muffins on the other side and cook for 5 to 8 minutes.  Transfer to sheet pan and bake in oven 5 to 8 minutes to ensure center is baked.

Transfer the baked muffins to a cooling rack.

Gingerbread Scones

 This weekend I was feeling like dirt.  I managed to get a heck of a cold.  You know the kind where you wake up in the morning and feel like a huge elephant is sitting right between your eyes.   The kind that makes you so stuffy you run out of breath when you try to chew.  That was me this weekend, in my pj’s and with tissue box in tow.   No fever was involved just some serious congestion and sneezing that wouldn’t quit, at one point I scared one of the dogs out of a deep sleep. He..he..he..

Being sick was annoying enough but if I am going to be sick I want to be sick enough to at least be able to stay home from work.  Instead I just got to feel miserable while I was at the office.   These scones however were able to make my Monday morning a bit more bearable.   

Scones were never something that really called my attention before.  I would walk into a coffee shop or bakery and completely bypass the scones.  They just didn’t look appetizing to me.  They looked hard and dry… like a brick of bread.   I don’t really remember when it was that I finally tried one.  I think I tasted a piece from a friends scone one day.   

I was surprised to find out that under what looked like a hard crust was a sweet bready treat.  I was expecting something more dry and brittle.  Honestly I was expecting to loose a tooth when I bit into it.   If I really think about it, that has no valid logic.  I mean, if scones were that hard and brittle why would anyone like them in the first place.  Why had I come to such a convoluted misconception (my big words for the week, they make me feel smart) is beyond me.

These scones were great and surprisingly softer then usual.  I think the use of buttermilk makes them more fluffy.  Bounus is they come together very easily.  I mean really easy….yes even you can make them Amber.  (Amber is my friend she is a wee bit afraid of her kitchen)   I had no clue scones were so easy to make!  These are wonderfully delicious and full of Autumn spices.  In the original recipe the lemon zest and cranberries are optional, but I declare they are a must.  The lemon bumps up the ginger flavor and the cranberries are a lovely tart treat.

Hmmmm….hmmmm….hmmmm…    Nom…nom…nom….  Me going to eat some! HA! 

No worries I just stamped myself DORK on the forehead.  Everyone if forewarned.

Print Recipe

Gingerbread Scones (6 scones) adapted from Joy of Baking

SCONES

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/2 Tbs unsulphured molasses
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

GLAZE

• 1/2 cup sifted confectioners sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbs pure maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp unsulphured molassas
• 1 – 2 tsp milk

Pre-heat oven at 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large mixer bowl whisk together, flour, oats, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Using a fork or a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flower until it looks crumbly.   Stir in cranberries and lemon zest.  In a separate bowl combine buttermilk, molasses and vanilla.   Set bowl with flour mixture on to the mixer with a dough hook attachment.  Set mixture at a low speed and slowly add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture.  Mix until just combined and begins to form a ball. 

Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface.  Knead dough gently about four or five times and form into a large ball.   Push the dough down and form into a large circle about 7 inches wide and 1 1/2 inches thick.   Cut the circle i half and cut each half into 3 even slices.   Place scones on baking sheet.

Place baking sheet into another baking sheet to keep the scones bottoms from over browning.  Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Transfer to cooking rack when done.

To glaze combine all glaze ingredients, adding more sugar or milk till you get desired consistency.  With spoon drizzle glaze over cooled scones and let dry.

Mallorca

I don’t think I can count all the happy and fun memories this bread brings up.  Every time I go home to visit I have to get my hands on a warm buttery mallorca.  In Puerto Rico every small town has at least one large bakery with an array of delicious pastries and breads and you almost always find mallorca.  If there is one weakness I have when I visit Puerto Rico it’s the bakeries.  I go on a all out carb gorge when I visit, picking up bread in the morning for breakfast and pastries to have with my after dinner cup of cafe con leche.

Mallorca bread is a sweet, fluffy and buttery egg bread. It is perfect to have sliced and buttered with a cup of coffee or you can also have a savory sandwich version with a slice of ham and Swiss. Pan de Mallorca (mallorca bread) originates from the Ensaïmades bread from the Spanish island of Majorca, which is why we call it Mallorca.

If there is one place that I MUST go visit when I am home in Puerto Rico, it is La Bombonera.  La Bombonera is rich part of Puerto Rico’s culture.  It is on Calle San Francisco in Old San Juan and was established in 1902, four years after the island was ceded to the U.S. after the Spanish-American War.  My mother would take my sister and I when we were young to La Bombonera on Saturday mornings and she would tell us about how she use to come with my Grandfather when she was little.  When you walk in it is like entering a time warp, the waitstaff is very friendly and they wear white shirts with bow ties and red vests and the “decor” hasn’t been updated since at least 1950.  There are all different kinds of people who visit La Bombonera, you will find people who have been coming there for years sometimes decades and tourist who just got off the cruise ship and are rosy red from all their time in the sun.  Most of all La Bombonera is famous for their mallorcas.  They sit in the window, plump, buttery and dusted with powdered sugar just begging you to come in and eat one.  If you ever visit you must try a mallorca with a cup of cafe con leche, which is made from an espresso machine, that has to be the same one they have had since it opened.  The machine looks like it has seen its share of battles but it makes a mean cup of coffee.  (Visit Tasting Memories for pictures of La Bombonera)

Another memory that comes to mind and makes me chuckle, is sitting out en el balcon (on the porch) early on a Saturday or Sunday morning and I could hear from a block away a megaphone with a lot of static announcing “el panadero…el panadero”. Eventually the sound would approach my house and a car would drive by with a megaphone rigged (I am sure coat hangers where used)  to the roof of a beat up old car announcing “el panadero…el panadero“ , which mean “the breadman….the breadman”, calling out to the neighborhood letting everyone know that he had fresh bread for sale.  People would come out of their homes in their robes and flag him down to buy bread for breakfast.  I remember on a few occasions picking out a bag of mallorcas and some pan de agua.  It was great since you didn’t have to get all dressed up to go to the bakery. 

It is funny how when you live in an area where certain ingredients are easy to come-by (ie. Florida and Puerto Rico) you take it for granted but ever since we moved out to Oklahoma I have been more driven to tie into my culinary roots.  Late last week I got in my head that I would try to make some mallorcas.  I went hunting around on the Internet and first came across this recipe.   I gave it a try and although they were good it wasn’t quite what I was looking for, they weren’t fluffy or sweet enough.  Also it used a rolling and slicing technique instead of a coil and it just didn’t translate in my brain.  When I see a mallorca it looks like a big fat coil, not like a plain cinnamon roll.   The next day I hit the Internet again determined to find a satisfactory recipe.  I could have tweaked the one I already had, but I am not confident enough in my baking skills to go and tweak a bread recipe.  After a short amount of searching I found this recipe on The Recipe Link.  It had more eggs, more sugar, more rising and it used the coil technique, I was in.

On Sunday after church I decided to give this new recipe a go.  It was easy although a bit time consuming since it has to rise 3 times, 45 mins. to an hour each time, but it was worth it.  They had all the elements that I wanted in a mallorca. They were just a little sweet, very soft and fluffy and ohhhhh so buttery.  The smell of the bread baking was intoxicating.  At one point Obed (a.k.a Hubby, which I will now call by his name) came into the kitchen and declared that it smelled like a Puerto Rican bakery.  He then did his signature “dance” of excitement, slapping his hand together, rubbing them together, while doing a little hop/skip thing that he does.  You have to see it to get it.

These mallorcas were divine and for just a moment they transported me back home, during my childhood when I would tear pieces off bit-by-bit and lick the butter and poweder sugar off my fingers.  That night we each had one for dessert with a glass of milk and then one in the morning with coffee.  I took the rest into the office, ergo avoiding a mass consumption of mallorca when I got home from work.  Otherwise it would have taken every ounce of my being to not eat them all in one sitting.

Print Recipe

Mallorca

• 1 pkg dry yeast
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 4 to 5 cups all purpose flour, divided use
• 1 cup milk, lukewarm
• 1 cup water, lukewarm
• 6 egg yolks
• 1/2 lb. butter, melted and cooled to lukewarm

In a mixing bowl, pour lukewarm milk and water, sprinkle yeast in add sugar and 1 cup of the flour. Set aside until the mixture starts to rise about 45 minutes.

Beat the egg yolks into the mixture, blending very well. Add the remaining flour little by little.  Add 1/2 the melted butter and set aside until it has doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Dust the board where the dough will be rolled out with a little flour to prevent dough from sticking, keep some flour handy for dusting. Divide dough into 12 equal portions. Roll out each portion, brush with butter and roll into a long strip. Form into a coil, insert the inner end making sure it’s tucked in, same with the other end of the roll. Butter top. Place on greased baking sheets. Use 2 baking sheets placing 6-8 rolls on each sheet.  Cover and let rolls rise until they have doubled in size.

Bake at 375 degrees F about 12-15 minutes.  Cool on cooling rack and dust with poweder sugar.

** In the picture I have all rolls one one sheet, but I had to divide them up so they would have room to rise and bake.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

At approximately 11: 17 pm on Friday night I had this sudden urge to bake cookies.  I don’t know why exactly I just did.  I posted it as my status on Facebook and a flurry of friends encouraged me to stay up late and bake the cookies.  However, I resisted the temptation, ignored the encouragement and forced myself to bed. 

The following morning Hubby and I got up and ran a few errands, but those stinking cookies where still in the back of my head.  Finally Saturday afternoon I just had to give into the urge and bake some stinking cookies. 

I went poking around on the Internet searching for a cookie recipe.  Remember I am not a baker so I cannot make one up.  That would be very dangerous, trust me.  I found this Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip recipe for Joy the Baker.   You should check out her site it is very cute and she has some great recipes. 

Let’s begin….

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Eat the Rainbow: Rainbow Cupcakes

I know cupcakes twice in one week not my usual modus operandi.  That’s my legal training kicking in.

Yesterday I decided to invite my friend Amber and her 6 year old daughter Mia over to my house to hang out and bake.  Amber is always saying she wants to cook or bake something but she is scared to.  I just laugh and yell “YOU CAN DO IT!” 

It took me a little while to come up with something to do since I don’t have children of my own, but then I though some rainbow cupcakes would be fun.  I mean what kid doesn’t want to eat a rainbow?  Right? 

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Coffee & Dougnuts

 Today I started working temporarily at Hubby’s office doing reception.  I have a few Noshery fan’s over there who get to enjoy some of my spoils, mainly because I send anything that is unhealthy their way so I don’t eat it.  It’s a secreat conspiricy to foil their wellness plan.

Last night after I came back from dinner with Hubby and Friend I stumbled upon this exchange on Facebook.

New Co-Worker #1
is excited for our new employee to start working tomorrow!

New Co-Worker #2
Who is that?!?

New Co-Worker #1
Meseidy is going to help on reception duty for a while. .

New Co-Worker #2
No s***? She should provide some entertainment for the building. It’s been pretty quiet since Sam left. Yes Sam…we miss you!!

New Co-Worker #3
Haha! Can we also hire her as the Link Chef??

New Co-Worker #2
Yes, I do believe we should get breakfast every morning. You reading this Meseidy!?!

New Co-Worker #1
Weight Gainers R Us!

New Co-Worker #3
Hahaha it’s all fat free I’m telling you

New Co-Worker #2
Something that tastes that good can’t have calories.

This definatly made me laugh…..I felt so loved.  Although I think deep down inside they only like me for my baked goods.

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Amish Cinnamon Bread

Has anyone done this, Amish friendship bread? I got the starter from a co-worker of mine.  I was really excited because I have been wanting to try this for awhile.  There are different variations of amish bread but they all start with the “starter”.  The recipe I got was for cinnamon bread.  The whole thing is a 10 day process.  The bread was worth the wait.  It makes 2 loafs so I took one to my in-laws and it went pretty quick. I am not much of a baker either, in fact I have had many baking catastrophes.  When Hubby tried it he was surprised and said “What happened?  It tastes good!” Here is the recipe/instructions:

 Amish Cinnamon Bread

DO NOT USE ANY TYPE OF METAL SPOON OR BOWL FOR MIXING. DO NOT REFRIGERATE.  If air gets in the bag, let it out.  It is normal for the batter to rise, bubble and ferment.

Day 1 Do nothing, Day you get your starter batter (I found a starter recipe, I have not tried it so I don’t know if it will work but it may be worth a try if you don’t have one)

Day 2 Mush Bag

Day 3 Mush Bag

Day 4 Mush Bag

Day 5 Mush Bag

Day 6 Add to Bag

            1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of milk, mush bag

Day 7 Mush Bag

Day 8 Mush Bag

Day 9 Mush Bag

Day 10 Pour entire contents from bag into a NON metal bowl

                Add 1 ½  cups of flour, 1 ½ cups of sugar, 1 ½ cups of milk

 

Measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each into 4 1 gallon Ziploc bags.  Keep one starter for yourself and give three to friends along with a copy of this recipe.

With the remaining batter in your bowl, use the following recipe to bake your bread

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Add the remaining ingredients to the batter in your bowl

                3 eggs

                1 Cup of oil (or ½ cup oil and ½ cup applesauce)

                ½ Cup milk

                1 Cup Sugar

                2 tsp. Cinnamon

                ½ tsp. Vanilla

                1 ½ tsp. Baking Powder

                ½ tsp. Baking Soda

                ½ tsp. Salt

                2 Cups Flour

                1 Large box instant vanilla pudding

Grease 2 loaf pans. Mix an additional ½ cup sugar and 1 ½ tsp. Cinnamon.  Dust pans with this mixture.  Pour batter evenly into the pans and sprinkle with remaining sugar/cinnamon over top. Bake for 1 hour (check in 45 mins)  Cool until bread loosens from the pans evenly (abt 10 mins.) Turn bread onto serving dish. Serve warm or cold.

If you keep a starter for yourself you will bake every 10 days. The bread is very good and makes a great gift.  Only the Amish know how to create a starter, so if you give them all away you will have to wait until someone gives you one back.