The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [103]
The popularity of Foster’s muffins grew and grew and—so the legend goes—the company at last moved out of its little dark bakery in the basement of an old building in the city into a spiffy new place with all shiny new stainless-steel equipment Up To Code. The trouble was the tiny little guys, the unique yeasts and who-knows-what that made the muffins what they were didn’t go along. They were left behind, and lost forever. Wonderful Foster’s is no more.
No, alas, we can’t summon them back. But we can tell you how to make holey, moist, chewy muffins out of whatever bread dough you think would make your ideal muffin. Our favorite is Desem bread, but Sprout Bread, Overnight Starter Bread, or almost any recipe with character will do very nicely.
Follow these instructions to make English Muffins from your favorite bread recipe. Most any dough with character will do; these work beautifully:
French Bread Flemish Desem Bread Overnight Started Bread Yeasted Sprout Bread
After you knead the dough to perfection according to the recipe you choose, you can divide it and set aside half for making regular loaf bread, if you want to. In that case, with one loaf’s worth of dough, you can make eight muffins. The muffin dough must be slightly overkneaded, and much wetter than regular bread dough, so keep wetting your hands as you work, and knead in as much water as you can. Stop when the dough is so soft that it is almost runny, and before the gluten falls apart. Finally, cover and set the dough to rise, following the instructions for whatever bread recipe you are making. The muffin dough will rise more quickly than its stiffer bread counterpart, however, because it is so wet.
Divide each loaf’s worth into eight equal pieces, and form each piece into as smooth a round as possible. Put the rounds on a very generously floured baking sheet, cover, and set it to proof in a warm place. The round balls of dough will have sagged down to about one inch high when they’re ready. Heat your griddle now. If the recipe you are using calls for more than a very little sweetener, the griddle should be only moderately hot, much cooler than you would use for pancakes, for example. Even with Desem or French or any other unsweetened dough, the griddle should be just about medium heat. If the griddle is too cool, all that will happen is that your muffins will have an extra-chewy crust, and take a little longer to cook. Unless the griddle is hopelessly unseasoned you shouldn’t need to grease it.
With a wide pancake turner and a magician’s sleight of hand, pick up the muffins one at time and place them flour-side down on the hot griddle. Turn them after about 5 minutes, when they are brown on the bottom; turn them again when they are brown, and keep turning them at about 5-minute intervals to keep the crusts from burning. They are done when the sides, which will not brown, of course, are springy. If in doubt, split one open with a fork and eat it. Good, no? Traditional to toast them, of course, split (not cut) in half.
Troubleshooting English Muffins
The next day the muffin will be rather dramatically smaller than it was when you took it off the heat. We allowed enough dough for really big muffins, so the shrinkage shouldn’t be a problem, but if all else is fine, and you want them bigger, next time make seven.
If there aren’t enough holes, and they aren’t big enough for you, next time knead longer and add more water. If your dough was not kneaded fully in the first place, it may not have gotten overkneaded, as it has to, during the second kneading. If all this seems a bit much, you can use a cup of pastry or rye flour in place of a cup of bread flour when you mix up the dough; this will require less kneading to develop its gluten fully. Or if you like sourdough muffins, use a sourdough recipe; the sour will break down the gluten too.
If the inside looks a tad gray, the dough fermented too long. Next time take it up sooner. Wet dough ferments faster than proper bread dough.
Chapathis
3 cups whole wheat flour, preferably freshly stone-ground