Tomorrow I'm going to serve an AR member, her 2 sisters, and her brother in law, Egg's Benedict for breakfast. Today I made the Sourdough English Muffin which I cooked in my Cast Iron Skillet. They have 15% of the flour as Whole Wheat flour to give it a little extra flavor. I mixed the dough yesterday and let it slow ferment overnight in the refrigerator to give it time to build flavor. Tomorrow I will make a nice Hollandaise sauce, cook the Canadian bacon and hash brown potato's and serve all a nice breakfast...😎
3Photos
Last edited by Breadhead; August 29, 2015, 03:12 AM.
Hi, my name is Darrell. I'm an OTR truck driver for over 25 years. During my off time I love doing backyard cooks. I have a 48" Lang Deluxe smoker, Rec-Tec pellet smoker,1 Weber Genesis 330, 1 Weber Performer (blue), 2 Weber kettles (1 black and 1 Copper), 1 26" Weber kettle, a WSM, 8 Maverick Redi Chek thermometers, a PartyQ, 2 SnS, Grill Grates, Cast Iron grates, 1 ThermoPop (orange) and 2 ThermoPens (pink and orange) and planning on adding more cooking accessories. Now I have an Anova sous vide, the Dragon blower and 2 Chef alarms from Thermoworks.
Neither did I until I learned to bake bread. I had so much fun with the Brioche hamburger bun project with Chef Jacob at StellaCulinary.com that I told him we should do the same thing with English Muffins.
Our intent is to make extraordinary sourdough English muffins that are superior to anything you can buy at a grocery store and make it easy to do.😎
Stay tuned...
Last edited by Breadhead; August 30, 2015, 12:01 AM.
Yeah Breadhead we need a write up in the recipe section... I know for at least part of it, you put them in a skillet on the stove, which leads me to believe we could maybe use a griddle on a kettle or some other cooker for that..
Yes... They would be easy on the flat side of grill grates. Use an infrared laser thermometer to get the grill grates to 325°. Use 3.5" ring molds and cook them about 5 minutes on each side, removing the molds when flipping them over. Cook them until the crumb temperature reaches 205°.
They are great for outdoor cooking especially when your kitchen is too hot to cook in.ðŸ‘Â
mackdaddy . The recipe and process is still in the development stage. I'm collaborating with a professional baker, Chef Jacob, who owns the StellaCulinary website. He's the guy that helped me develope the Brioche hamburger bun recipe.
We decided that we needed to completely master English muffins. We both agree that they would be more flavorful and unique if we used sourdough instead of commercial Dry Yeast. Our intent is to develop a process and a recipe that is simple for the average home cook/baker to make them. They are easier to make than one might think.
Stay tuned... When we both agree we've accomplished our goal of making extraordinary English muffins we will publish it.😎
Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About meReal name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan- near Clare. (dead center of lower peninsula)
Occupation:
Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
Funny you posted this, I was meaning to ask you what makes English muffins so different. So I will ask this instead: What makes pretzels taste like pretzels? Other than the obvious being different dough. What's different about pretzel dough?
English muffins are a rich dough. Meaning it has a fairly high fat content, butter. It also has an extremely high hydration content. The muffins in the picture above are 90% hydration. Meaning you include enough water and whole milk that those 2 ingredients equal 90% of the weigh of the flour in the recipe. We're going to add flavor to our version by using 15% of the flour as Whole Wheat and 30% of the total flour in the recipe will come from our sourdough starter. Getting those big holes that are common in English muffins is a tricky feat when you use that much butter.😎
You might be surprised how little difference there is in bread recipes. Pretzels have sugar and course salt. That gives you the sweet but salty taste.😎
Pretzel recipe:
2 1â„4 teaspoons yeast
1 1â„4 cups warm water
1â„4 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups bread flour
1 cup water
1 tablespoon baking soda
coarse salt (optional)
2 tablespoons butter, melted (optional)
Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About meReal name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan- near Clare. (dead center of lower peninsula)
Occupation:
Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
Breadhead so the extra sugar helps give it that characteristic extra dark brown look, from Maillard, which then assuming is what gives it it's unique taste?
Yes... Sugar helps brown the crust of bread, the maillard effect. But yeast/sourdough starters love sugar. If you overproof your dough the yeast will deplete the sugar content and you will end up with a blond loaf, very little browning in the oven.
However those dark brown crust colors of Pretzel buns was mostly caused by mopping the final shaped dough with just the yoke of an egg right before you put it in the oven. Using just the yoke will give you a darker shiny finish. Using just the egg white or just milk will give you the light brown finish like the hamburger buns you buy at the grocery store.
On my Brioche buns I use just the yoke of an egg and I top that with both light and dark sesame seeds. That gives you a dark shiny finish and the light and dark sesame seeds give it a pretty visual appearance.
If I were making soft Pretzels or Pretzel shaped buns I would baste it with just egg yoke and then top it with coarse ground Sea Salt. The brown sugar in the dough will give it a slight sweetness but the coarse ground Sea Salt will give it the kick.
Getting closer to fine tuning our Sourdough English Muffin formula and processes. We're getting the taste profile we want but we are not quite there in visual appearance. Stay tuned my friends.😎
Tomorrow I'm going to serve these English muffins to my taste tester's with Egg's Benedict. I think they will like them.🙈
Last edited by Breadhead; September 6, 2015, 01:18 AM.
Drizzled with Butter, topped with a slice of ham or bacon and an over medium fried egg and I don't beleave I would notice the slight imperfection in the muffin!
LOL... There is a waiting list. However there is an opening now. My 38 year old son has officially resigned as one of my taste tester. He complained that he had gained 20Lbs from testing my food and bread. He said all of my taste tester's gain about 30lbs and he needs to resign now before he joins the 30lb overweight club.ðŸ˜â€
Last edited by Breadhead; September 9, 2015, 12:55 AM.
Ok new experiment... I decided we need to increase the hydration (water/milk content) to make this dough pourable, like a pancake batter - 110%/120% hydration. Because it is sourdough I think we need to bake it hotter, like 450°. I tried it and it came out better.😜
Tomorrow I'm going to mix a batch of dough at 120% hydration (almost like a pancake batter) and pour it into the ring molds and bake it at 500°. The project is progressing nicely.😎
Last edited by Breadhead; September 9, 2015, 01:23 AM.
You have give the recipe and directions to make them. Looks good.
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