"Bob (this one)" > wrote in message
...
> Nancy Young wrote:
> > "Andy" <q> wrote
> >
> >>"Nancy Young" > wrote
> >
> >>>Seems to me after all this time they'd have figured
> >>>out a way to fork split them so that the halves are just
> >>>a teensy bit more even, not like 70/30?
> >
> >>Write them. It's mad science. Has been for decades.
> >>
> >
> > (laugh) But then what kind of nonsense could I amuse myself
> > with? I need lopsided breakfast bread.
>
> If you make your own, you could cut them vertically and just imagine how
> much fun that would be. A column I wrote back in the last century about
> them. And a variant that's utterly decadent. Enjoy.
>
> Pastorio
> -----------------------------
> English muffins explained
> I never had an English muffin in England. At least, not one I
> recognized. I did have crumpets, though and they seemed like distant
> cousins to what I had had in this country. I liked theirs better.
> Think about this for a minute. What is bread like when it’s been in a
> package for a week or more? Right. At least starting to get stale, what
> with all the magical chemistry going on inside the plastic wrap. Same
> for the muffins. They are not, how you say, at the peak of flavor and
> texture.
> English muffins are a kind of yeast bread and they should prove to be
> fairly easy. There are two distinct techniques for shaping English
> muffins. Take your choice. And we’ll look at a variation that produces
> the most luxuriously sensuous texture you’ve ever seen in a baked product.
> And we’ll see about crumpets. What are crumpets, anyway? We’ll see
> that, too.
> To bake them, you’ll need a griddle and I prefer cast iron. Even heat
> is the most important question and however you get there is fine.
> We’re going to make a sponge and let it rise until it collapses by
> itself. Whoa, Bob. How about a little explanation of the technical
> terms? Right. Mix everything together holding back part of the flour so
> that the resulting batter is thickly liquid. That’s a sponge. While it
> rises, big bubbles form and it looks like, all together now, a sponge.
> You thought this was going to be hard.
> Since it’s thinner than the usual bread dough, it will rise for a while
> and then simply collapse under its own weight. Then we’ll put the rest
> of the flour in. In answer to the question of that fellow over there, I
> don’t know if it can be started in a bread machine.
> ENGLISH MUFFINS
> Makes about a dozen 4-inch or a dozen and a half 3-inch muffins
> 1/8 cup warm water to dissolve yeast (105 - 120 degrees)
> 1 packet dry yeast (or equivalent in other forms)
> 1 cup water, room temperature
> 1/2 cup scalded milk, cooled to about 120 degrees
> 1 tablespoon sugar
> 1 teaspoon salt
> 4 cups all-purpose flour
> 3 tablespoons butter at room temp
> extra flour or cornmeal
> extra butter
> In a bowl large enough to handle the risen dough (maybe 4 quarts or so),
> combine water and yeast, stir and let dissolve for a couple minutes. Add
> water, milk, sugar and salt to yeast. Gradually add half of the flour
> and mix well. Cover and put aside until the sponge has risen and
> collapsed, at least an hour and up to two hours. Mix in the soft butter
> then add the rest of the flour and mix in well. Here’s where the two
> different methods of shaping the muffins comes in.
> Shaping with rings: Muffin rings (or flan rings or tuna fish cans or
> cat food cans or whatever) or any other kind of metal rings have been
> traditional in shaping the muffins. They’re metal rings about two inches
> tall and look like cans with both ends open. Grease the rings and put
> them on prepared cookie sheets for the final rising. The cookie sheets
> may be greased or floured or have a thin layer of corn meal on them to
> keep the muffin dough from sticking. Put rounds of dough in them that
> fit snugly against the sides from 1/2 to 3/4 inch deep. Let them rise
> until they’re doubled.
> Shaping without rings: On a floured board, shape the dough into a sheet
> about 1/2 inch deep. Use a well-floured rolling pin and work gently. Cut
> the dough into 3- or 4-inch circles and put on prepared cookie sheets to
> rise until doubled.
> To bake the muffins: When the muffins are fully risen, heat a buttered
> griddle until hot but not smoking. Gently slide a spatula under the
> muffins and put them on the griddle. Remove the rings. Turn muffins once
> after the first side is a light-medium brown. That’s it.
> *The impossibly smooth variant is, of course, based on fat. I sometimes
> make English Muffins using cream instead of the water and milk called
> for in the recipe. When you toast and eat them, they don’t need butter.*
> Split the muffins for toasting with a scallop-bladed knife or use two
> forks back to back. The former gives you nice even surfaces to butter
> (or jelly). The latter gives you the famous "nooks and crannies" of
> advertising fame a few years back. Your call.
> Crumpets are like English muffins except they’re different. To the
> above recipe, add another cup of milk at the beginning, maybe a cup and
> 1/8 to get a more liquid batter. You have to use the rings because the
> dough will be more loose. Otherwise, it’s the same technique. The
> texture of the crumpets will be denser and the crumb will be smaller and
> more elegant. Marmalade seems to be made for crumpets.
Crumpets - you mean the round things with kinda, open at the top vertical
tubular holes running right through, right? Kinda somewhat rubbery/elastic
texture in the middle? That's what we call crumpets. If they are thinner and
square, called pieklets (sp?!?) by some here. Marmalade would be sacrilege
on those! Toast them (no one slices these things BTW!) butter, and heaps of
it. You want it to start oozing out, dripping out of the crusty base, then a
nice slice of cheese on top before it cools, so it wilts a little, would go
well. I'd dust mine with powdered chiles too, of course.
Hmmmm, crumpet...
Shaun aRe - Marmalade, pah, heheheheh...