Let's be honest here: I am fully documented as being lazy. So I made the dough** in my bread machine this morning rather than the multi-step, multi-rest, multi-rise instructions from the bakery. I left it to do its thing and went for a walk at the beach. Came back, portioned out the dough (I cut 16 rather than 12), preheated the oven to 170, shut it off and proofed them for an hour.
I'll get some photos uploaded later, but the stove-top baking was the most difficult part. I'm not much of a cast-iron cooker, so I went with Model's recommended guide: medium heat. Well….I'm now the proud owner of several one-side only burnt muffins. I still don't understand how that happened. I cooked one side fine, flipped over and cooked the back side. Even a few minutes short of the 6-minute range, they were burning on the back side.
But, oh, the ones that were done right once I lowered the temperature! They never even got toasted. I did let them sit for the 20-minutes "off the stove and finish baking time" and so they were hot and chewy.
Which brings me to the "other thing" I may have inadvertently changed. Luckily I noticed LAST NIGHT that you have to make a biga at least 12 hours before making the dough. I checked my pantry and realized I had blown through all my yeast** making nut roll and nut horns and cinnamon rolls over the holidays. BUT…I did find this tiny package called "Florapan" >> mini-gift from King Arthur. Since it said CULTURE on the outside, with no other directions, I opted to use that for the 1/4 tsp yeast needed for the biga. This morning I read online that it produces a more "sour dough" texture to breads.
So…whether MY English muffins are nice and chewy because of the recipe OR because I used this in the biga is beyond my knowledge.
** This morning I finally found another package of rapid yeast deep in the bowels of my pantry.
I'll get some photos uploaded later, but the stove-top baking was the most difficult part. I'm not much of a cast-iron cooker, so I went with Model's recommended guide: medium heat. Well….I'm now the proud owner of several one-side only burnt muffins. I still don't understand how that happened. I cooked one side fine, flipped over and cooked the back side. Even a few minutes short of the 6-minute range, they were burning on the back side.
But, oh, the ones that were done right once I lowered the temperature! They never even got toasted. I did let them sit for the 20-minutes "off the stove and finish baking time" and so they were hot and chewy.
Which brings me to the "other thing" I may have inadvertently changed. Luckily I noticed LAST NIGHT that you have to make a biga at least 12 hours before making the dough. I checked my pantry and realized I had blown through all my yeast** making nut roll and nut horns and cinnamon rolls over the holidays. BUT…I did find this tiny package called "Florapan" >> mini-gift from King Arthur. Since it said CULTURE on the outside, with no other directions, I opted to use that for the 1/4 tsp yeast needed for the biga. This morning I read online that it produces a more "sour dough" texture to breads.
So…whether MY English muffins are nice and chewy because of the recipe OR because I used this in the biga is beyond my knowledge.
** This morning I finally found another package of rapid yeast deep in the bowels of my pantry.