English Muffins

English Muffins

Have you ever had a real English muffin, not the ones you bye at the grocery store, but one made at a bakery? The light, crunchy, soft, delicate, lightly sour muffin is a little slice of heaven. We went to Napa for a weekend and ended up at Model Bakery for english muffins. This visit ruined it for me, now I'm craving these tasty treats, and will never be satisfied with the store bought kind ever again.

I really didn't know anything about english muffins. But reading up on the history the english muffins are based on the recipe for classic english crumpets. Both crumpets and english muffins are originally made in a cast-iron skillet on the stovetop, are generally the same size and are  eaten for breakfast or tea.

According to the nibble "The English muffin, first called a “toaster crumpet,” was invented in 1894 by a British immigrant to New York, Samuel Bath Thomas. Immediately embraced as a more elegant alternative to toast, it was served at fine hotels and ultimately became a mainstay of American breakfast cuisine."

When you talk about english muffin, you will always hear the term "nook and crannies." The nooks and crannies are the little holes made from the gluten structure in the bread, they help catch the spread you put on, wether it's butter, lemon curd or even peanut butter. The best way to keep the nooks and crannies is to spilt the english muffin with your fingers or using a fork. By not using a knife you'll get an uneven surface that will hold the butter better on the toasted muffin.

While I was researching for this post, I stumbled upon Sheryl's blogpost about english muffins. By the reviews and the directions, it looked like the right place to start. So I went with her recipe.

I really like the taste of the muffins, but I would love if they were a bit more fluffy. But I will make these again for sure. When you have the technique down, they are super easy.

Makes 6 muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (240 ml) milk

• 1 tablespoon (14 g) butter

• 1 tablespoon sugar or honey

• 1 packet (2¼ teaspoon) dry yeast

• 2 cups (190 g) all-purpose flour

• ½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

At night:

Heat the milk to simmering, then drop in butter and sugar or honey. Stir until it melts and is combined, let the mixture cool. When it’s lukewarm, sprinkle in the yeast, stir, and let it sit for 10 minutes until bubbly. Don’t use an aluminium bowl, because that can interfere with the yeast. 

Mix flour and salt in another bowl. When the yeast mixture is bubbly, add the flour and beat vigorously for a couple minutes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter (not in the refrigerator) overnight. It will overproof – rise and collapse. This is what creates the English muffin’s characteristic sourdough taste and large bubbles.

Next morning:

Scrape the sides of the bowl with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula and remix a little. Then use a spatula and spoon to drop muffin-size dough globs into a small bowl of cornmeal. Don’t try to handle the dough, it’s too sticky. Lift each muffin glob from the cornmeal with a slotted spatula, shake off any excess cornmeal, and place muffin in a ungreased cast-iron skillet.

When the skillet is full, cover it (with a glass top or a bowl), and let the muffins rise for about 30 minutes. They won’t rise much at this point, because all the sugar has been eaten by the yeast, but they’ll puff up a little more when they start to cook. Remove the lid before cooking!

Set your stove’s burner to medium-low. If it’s electric, let the burner preheat. If you have an electric skillet, you’ll have to let the muffins rise somewhere else so you can preheat it. I used a cast iron pan and set the burner to medium-low.

Warning: Do not set the temperature too high. The muffins have to cook slowly, or the inside will be doughy while the outside is burned. Don’t crank up the heat because it’s not sizzling. It’s not supposed to sizzle. 

The muffins can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes per side, depending on how high you set the skillet temperature. Turn them over when the first side is browned.

When the second side is browned, remove the muffins to a cooling rack and let them cool completely. If you don’t let them cool, they will be doughy inside. Also, they taste best if they are fully cooled and then toasted. Split them for toasting by pulling them apart with your fingers, rather than cutting with a knife. This maximises the nooks and crannies that are so great for holding butter and jam.

Danish Morning Buns - brusebadsboller

Danish Morning buns  with cheese and jam. Brusebadsboller med ost og marmelade.

Most danes love to eat fresh baked buns with butter and cheese in the morning.  In my home we would have bread or oats with milk as breakfast during the weekdays. In the weekends we would have homemade bread or freshly made bread or morning buns (rundstykker) from the local bakery. I loved my moms homemade bread, but I could never have it straight from the oven, because it had to rise twice and it had to be baked. But these morning buns, are perfect. You mix them up at night, set to rise overnight in the refrigerator  and baked in the morning. The easy way to warm fresh made morning buns for breakfast. In danish the morning rolls are called brusebadsboller, or shower buns, because you can bake them, while you take your morning shower.

Makes 18

Ingredients:

• 615 g all-purpose flour
• 85 g flax seeds
• 150 g quick oats
• 700 g water
• 7 g (1 pack fleischmann's) dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 3 tablespoons canola oil

topping:

• poppy seeds or
• sesame seeds

Directions:

At night:

Mix cold water, salt, honey, oats flax seeds and oil in a bowl. Add the dry yeast and add the flour a little at a time until you have a soft paste-like dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set to rise in the refrigerator overnight.

Next morning:

Take the dough out of the refrigerator. Using a ice cream scoop or two spoons shape 9 buns onto two parchment lined baking sheet. Let the dough rest while you preheat the oven to 430℉ (220℃).

Sprinkle with poppy seeds before baking.  

Bake the buns for about 18- 20 minutes or until they are golden brown. You can check whether your bread or buns are done, by gently tapping the bottom of them. If  they sound hollow - they are done.

Soft Pretzels - Kommenskringler

Soft Pretzels - Kommenskringler

I believe the soft pretzels originate from Germany. The danish version contains caraway seeds. Back in the days, you could get them at most bakeries in Denmark, but nowadays, you only see them at old traditional bakeries.

Growing up, we had them occasionally,  because my mom loved caraway seeds, but I hadn’t had them for years before I met my husband, and he reintroduced me to them again.  

I love the soft, sweet bread with the characteristic taste of caraway seeds.

Here is how I made them

Ingredients:

• 500 g all-pupose flour
• 100 g butter
• 50 g live yeast (or 12 g dry active yeast)
• 4 tablespoons caraway seeds
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 300 g milk 
• 1 egg (for egg wash)

Directions:

Warm the milk and melt the butter in it.  Mix together flour, sugar, salt and caraway seeds. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry  and knead the dough for about 10 minutes on medium. The dough should be soft and almost sticky.

Divide the dough into 12 pieces. Shape each piece into a pretzel, and let the pretzels rise until doubled in size in a warm place. 

Brush pretzels with egg and sprinkle with caraway seeds. 

Bake the pretzels for about 10 minutes at 485℉ (250℃). 

Let cool on a wire rack.

Meyers seedless rye bread

Seedless rye bread

I've made rye bread before, but this time I wanted to try the seedless kind. My dad didn't like to many seeds in his bread. And if you have a child who just started getting solid foods, you want to start off with a softer version of the traditional rye bread.

The bread is soft and light with a mild rye bread taste.

This recipe is from Claus Meyers Bagebog

Ingredients:

• 1100 g water - finger-warm

• 30 g yeast (live yeast)

• 1 dl sourdough

• 500 g all-purpose flour

• 1100 g rye flour

• 30 g sea salt

Directions:

Pour the water into a big bowl, and mix in the sourdough and the yeast. Add the all-purpose flour, rye flour and salt, mix it well. If you do it by hand, kneed the dough for about 10 minutes. If you kneed it in a stand mixer, mix it 3 minutes on low and then 5 minutes on high. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel an let it rise/ferment for about 3 hours.

Divide the dough in three and form loafs. Put the loafs into baking pans. Cover the pans and let the dough rise/ferment for another 3 hours.

Preheat the oven for 350℉ and put the breads in the oven and bake them for about 45-50 minutes.

Take the breads out of the baking pans and brusk the tops with melted butter.  Let the breads cool completely.

Danish Rye Bread

Danish Rye Bread

Open-faced sandwich with roast beef 

Growing up in Denmark we had open-faced sandwiches for lunch every day. Like this Roast beef with horseradish, remoulade and pickles cucumber. OK this was not an everyday dish. Normally the sandwich was more simple, like liver pate with pickled beets or egg with mayo. 

Moving outside Scandinavia I was forced to figure out how I could get the Rye bread (Rugbrød).  

The easy way out was going to IKEA to get their Shake 'n Bake Rye Bread, and this was the route I went for the first years. 

Baking the Tartine Bread gave me an introduction to baking with sourdough, and it was a segway into baking Rye Bread from scratch.

I didn't want to make the same bread as my mom made back in the days. It was way too white, and looked more like a wheat bread than a rye bread. 

My inspiration came from Kvalimads Best Rye Bread.  I made some changes to his recipes. This is how I make the bread:

Sourdough starter: 

Allmost all bakers of the danish rye bread has their own sourdough starter. Many people get the starter from a friend or relative. A starter can last for decades if treated right.

I opted for the easy way out, buying a starter from King Arthur Flour, and fed it with half rye and wheat flour. By now my starter is a year old, and some of my friends got some of it. It takes a couple of bakes to get the right acidity and taste if you start your own starter from scratch.

This recipe makes 2 big rye bread. 

Sourdough leaven: 

• 200 g sourdough/starter (the starter you keep in the refrigerator and feed every other week) 
• 400 g water
• 125 g rye flour
• 135 g all-purpose flour

Dough:

• 1600 g water
• 600 g sourdough leaven
• 265 g rye berries (hele rugkerner)
• 150 g cracked rye (knækkede rygkerner)
• 75 g flax seeds
• 75 g sunflower seeds
• 275 g wheat berries (hard red spring wheat berries) (hele hvedekerner)
• 170 g bulgur (100% whole grain quick cooking bulgur wheat)
• 375 g rye flour (dark rye flour)
• 400 g all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoon (57 g) salt
• a splash coloring/kulør - optional
• Topping pumpin seeds, 

Directions:

Day 1, morning: 

The process 

Feed the starter to make the leaven. The leaven is ready to use when the leaven is bubbleing and smells like beer - after about 8 hours at room temperature. Cover the leaven with a clean towel. 

Soak the rye- and wheat-berries and seed in water in a large bow (I use to bowl because of the big amount). Cover the bowl with a large plate. Let them soak at room temperature until the leaven is ready.

Day 1,

night: 

Save about 200g leaven and put it aside in a sealed container. This will be your sourdough starter for the next batch of bread. It will keep without feeding for about 14 days in the refrigerator. 

Add the leaven to the soaked berries and seed. Cover the bowl with a large plate. Let the mixture ferment overnight at room temperature . 

Day 2, morning: 

Add the salt, coloring and the flour to the dough and mix thoroughly, to make sure all the flour is fully incorporated, let rise for about two hours.

Eva Professionel rye bread tin

Add the dough to two rye bread baking forms. (I use Eva Professionel Rye Bread Tin which holds 3,3 liters).

Let the bread rise for about an hour, covered with a clean towel. The longer you let it rise, the more sour the bread becomes.

Poke a few holes with a cake tester or knitting needle, to  prevent the crust to rise and crack.

Brush the bread with water and sprinkle with pumpkin or sesame seeds.

Place the baking form in a preheated oven for 1 hour 15 minutes at 350°F. 

Turn off the heat, remove the breads from the baking forms, spray with water on all sides and place them back in the oven directly on the rack for about an hour while the oven cools.

Take the breads out and wrap them in an clean kitchen towel. This will help softening the crust. Let breads cool completely.

It's best to wait cutting the bread until the next day. 

Enjoy the bread with your favorite deli meat or cheese. 

Testing the leaven the man in the cup showed up. 

The man in the cup