Wednesday, June 10, 2009

A Better (not perfect) English Muffin

My first attempt at making english muffins wasn't the result of a sudden burst of creative energy, or the need to challenge my somewhat monotonous bread-baking repetoire. To tell you the truth, making my own english
muffins was never something that even crossed my mind until I read this. Even then, after I'd starred the article in my Google Reader feed for future reference it still seemed like one of those things that weren't reaaaally worth doing at home.

That was until Victoria day weekend. We were planning on making Eggs Benedict at home on the Monday morning and as sad as this sounds, it was probably the thing I was most looking forward to all weekend. We had plans to visit a friend's new condo on Sunday, so the plan was to stop at our 24-hour Sobeys on the way home to pick up the necessary english muffins. But of course, I hadn't factored in the fact that after midnight it was technically MONDAY and therefore a holiday, and Sobeys was closed. Damn.

So....I was faced with the choice of either making my own english muffins, or postponing the much-anticipated eggs benedict. And of course the latter wasn't really an option. So I decided to go for it. And they were good! The texture was all there - fluffy, holey and they easily split open with a fork. Amazing. But, the flavour was somewhat lacking. They definitely didn't have that sour tang I'm used to from store-bought muffins. I decided that next time (and there would be a next time) I would look for a recipe that addressed my issue.

Enter The Bread Bible. One of the things that Berenbaum specifies in her book is the use of a sponge, starter, or biga in her breads. This helps to add a natural flavour, or tang to the bread. After a short-lived attempt at making my own sourdough starter (which was a complete failure) this seemed to be a better and easier way.

And...these english muffins were delicious. The flavour was perfect - buttery with that slight sourness I missed in the first bath. But the texture was all wrong. I'm not sure if I did something wrong in the instructions or overworked the dough but these muffins were flat and had almost no nooks and crannies. So I guess I'm halfway there...next time I'm going to have to try and combine the two recipes and see what happens. The search continues.

Hearth Bread

I don't buy a lot of cookbooks. For the most part, I find the majority of the recipes I use from various foodie blogs and communities. Even when using cookbook recipes, I often combine advice from online sites and recipes as convenient.

However, recently I've been trying to expand my bread-baking experiences outside of just sandwich loaves and dinner rolls. I wanted to try something more challenging, or maybe just more impressive to my friends when I tell them what I've been doing in the evenings. But anyway, I decided to buy a bread-related cookbook. I had a few possibilites in mind, but when I saw The Bread Bible was selling at only $35 CAD, I knew it was a sign. It was the SAME as the US PRICE. So anyway, I bought it. And I decided to try following the recipes as printed, no substitutions or adjustments from other sources.

I chose the Basic Hearth Bread, which I think is the same as Artisan-style bread. Berenbaum's recipes are very detailed with specific instructions, and I missed a few steps. I didn't have instant yeast so I used the active dry form that I normally use (you need to combine this kind with water before using). I also didn't have dry milk so I used scalded milk as she suggested. Aaand I might have used slightly more whole wheat flour than suggested (not on purpose, I read the measurement wrong). But even with my screwups, it was pretty good. It had the chewy, crisp crust that my other loaves don't have and some of the large-ish holes that characterize artisan breads. And as long as it took, I felt pretty proud of myself in the end. There's something about a "rustic" freeform loaf that is so much more pleasing than sandwich bread. I'll definitely be making this again!

permainan dan dipermainkan saat bermain

Aku jatuh cinta...
bukan pada angin
juga bukan pada debu yang memelukku tiap langkah

Aku tergila-gila...
Bukan karena parasnya yang menawan atau perlu ditawan
juga bukan karena rayuan senja yang mengalun

Ini soal rasa yang terlalu tidak sabar
mengawang hingga lelah sendiri
berharap terlalu banyak
Hingga langit tak lagi muat untuk menggantungnya

Terlalu bersemangat dan menggebu
tak sadar yang berkendali 'BUKAN AKU'
Ini permainan dimana aku bermain dan dipermainkan
Ini bukan lelucon yang kuendapkan lagi

Salah siapa??
Dia tak ada ubahnya layak seekor rubah
berlari kesana kemari
tapi menggoda, mendesir sepiku

Terlalu gila!
Aku terjebak dalam jebakan yang kubuat.
Aku selalu menang dalam tiap langkah
tapi kalah dalam kelancarannya

Aku yang mengatur skenario, tapi dialah si sutradara

hey man!
Kesabaranku habis...
tapi kali ini aku tak bisa lepaskan

Holy pizza!

Mark LOVES pizza. Quite possibly more than Lily, and certainly more than me. ;) I can be cooking up a meal of fresh chicken fajitas with homemade pico de gallo and guacamole...and he'll be wanting Papa Johns. I've learned to not take it all too personally.

I, on the other hand, am very indifferent towards pizza (I'm the anti-Chi towner...I know, I know). That is unless, of course, it's Italian pizza. Most everyone reading my blog knows that I spent many a week-long trips in Italy (as well as a summer...not to rub it in or anything...) with Mark while he was working in Varese for 2 years. And one of the many valuable life lessons learned while in Italy: what REAL pizza looks like, tastes like, consists of, etc.

The Italians know their pizza better than they know Gucci, perhaps. Your pizza will arrive with a diameter easily spanning 20+ inches and be made with the freshest of ingredients including tomatoes, arugula and bresaola* (my personal favorite toppings), speck, prosciutto, olives, artichoke hearts, and so on and so forth. These pizza crusts are paper-thin and are loaded with the non-dairy toppings making them much more healthy ...and balanced in many cases. I had acquired a serious respect for the Italian pizza, until Mark discovered THIS:





Could he LOOK any happier? The above is my husband with a pizza topped with pepperoni ("salami piccante") and FRENCH FRIES. Oh, and also some mystery white sauce. WHAT a tragedy! Blasphemy on this pizza!

...of all the 2,394,802,324,921 photos we took all over Europe in those years...THIS picture had more comments on Facebook than any of the others. And we WONDER why we're obese (or if you're bitter like me, wonder why HE'S not at least a little chubby...yet).

Side note: Mark went on to eat many pizzas in Italy topped with pepperoni and french fries. He's my hopeless pizza fiend.


* Bresaola is a cured meat that is virtually fat-free - 23 calories and 5 grams of protein per ounce. It is heavy preserved in natural seawater and is consumed as a luncheon meat, pizza topping, primi piatti meat served with melon, etc. It is fantastic!