Make the Bread, Buy the Butter - Jennifer Reese [24]
4 English muffins, homemade (recipe follows) or store-bought, split and toasted
8 slices Canadian bacon, homemade or store-bought
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
8 eggs
1 recipe hollandaise sauce, warm
Cayenne pepper
1. Arrange the muffin halves, two to a plate, on four plates.
2. Fry the bacon until it acquires some dark brown spots and the edges are starting to curl up. Top each muffin half with a disk of bacon.
3. Bring a pan of water to a simmer—it should be bubbling, but not actually boiling. Add the vinegar. Crack an egg into a small measuring cup, lower the cup into the water, and let the egg slip out. Repeat with three eggs and cook until firm, about 3 minutes. When the eggs are cooked—the whites set, but the yolks still glowing and molten—remove from the water with a slotted spoon and slip onto a piece of paper towel to dry for a minute. Repeat with the remaining eggs. Trim the ragged edges of the white, if desired. Place each egg on a circle of bacon.
4. Pour warm hollandaise over each egg, sprinkle with cayenne, and serve immediately.
Serves 4
Now to that interesting question of how you acquire the components. As is usually the case, the more of them you make from scratch, the cheaper and more delicious the dish will be. But is it really worth the effort? Starting from the bottom:
ENGLISH MUFFINS
English muffins are fun to make—they rise straight up in the skillet like the flat-topped towers of storybook castles. I’ve never been able to match the nooks and crannies of a Thomas’ muffin, but homemade muffins easily trump lesser brands like Oroweat.
Make it or buy it? If you have the time and inclination, make them, though to be honest their loveliness is lost under the hollandaise of eggs Benedict.
Hassle: A lot more hassle than going to the store
Cost comparison: To make English muffins from scratch costs about $0.10 per muffin. Thomas’: $0.42. Sara Lee: $0.55.
¼ cup warm water
1 tablespoon instant yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 large egg
1¼ cups warm milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Neutral vegetable oil, for greasing the bowl
Cornmeal, for sprinkling
1. In the bowl of a mixer, combine the water, yeast, sugar, 2 cups of the flour, and the salt and beat to combine. Add the egg, milk, and butter and continue beating until creamy. Add the remaining flour and knead until smooth and bouncy, adding additional flour by the tablespoon only as necessary. You want the dough to be manageable, but soft and moist.
2. Remove the dough from the bowl, oil the bowl, and return the dough to the bowl. Cover with a clean, damp dish towel and let rise until doubled, about 2 hours.
3. Sprinkle a work surface with cornmeal. Place the dough on the cornmeal, and sprinkle the top with additional cornmeal. Roll the dough into a 9 by 15-inch rectangle, about ½ inch thick. Don’t stretch the dough. Using a 3-inch biscuit cutter, cut out muffins. Reroll the scraps and cut out the rest of the muffins.
4. Heat a cast-iron skillet until very hot.
5. Place as many muffins in the hot pan as will fit without crowding. Immediately turn down the heat to medium so the muffins cook through without burning—10 to 15 minutes per side. They should be a light hazelnut brown.
6. Remove muffins to a cooling rack. Split with a fork before toasting. Store in a bag at room temperature for up to a week. Freeze for longer storage.
Makes about 16 muffins
ENGLISH MUFFINS
Before there were muffins as we know them in the United States today—shaped like cupcakes and often just as sweet—there were English muffins. These were the unsweetened flattish breads peddled by the Muffin Man of childhood song