English Muffin Failure

I was flipping through my food Network All Stars cookbook the other day and found a recipe for homemade English Muffins. YAY! I love English Muffins and have been using them instead of bread for my tuna and jalapeno sandwiches at lunch everyday. This recipe should be a great way to save money-plus have some homemade muffins stashed in the freezer for whenever I want them.

Well-I had total English Muffin failure. I had apparently skimmed right past the part about needing metal rings to make the things until the moment I actually went to make them. Hell-I surely don't have any metal rings. Alton suggest using tuna cans with both the tops and bottoms removed as a good substitute. I thought I would be in the clear because I definitely have tuna cans I can open up. Only problem there was that the cans had to have both a crimped top and bottom-mine did not-so there was no way to remove the bottom.

I figured I'd try to make one inside the tuns can with just the top removed and it ALMOST worked-but not quite...so I just decided to throw the batter on the griddle like pancakes so as not to waste it all.

I WILL make these again because I can tell if you have the metal rings/tuna cans this is pretty easy and really inexpensive to make and they taste lovely.


Alton Brown's English Muffins


Ingredients
1/2 cup non-fat powdered milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon shortening
1 cup hot water
1 envelope dry yeast
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup warm water
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
Non-stick vegetable spray

Special equipment: electric griddle, 3-inch metal rings, see Cook's Note*

Directions

In a bowl combine the powdered milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, shortening, and hot water, stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Let cool. In a separate bowl combine the yeast and 1/8 teaspoon of sugar in 1/3 cup of warm water and rest until yeast has dissolved. Add this to the dry milk mixture. Add the sifted flour and beat thoroughly with wooden spoon. Cover the bowl and let it rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes.
Preheat the griddle to 300 degrees F.
Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt to mixture and beat thoroughly. Place metal rings onto the griddle and coat lightly with vegetable spray. Using #20 ice cream scoop, place 2 scoops into each ring and cover with a pot lid or cookie sheet and cook for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the lid and flip rings using tongs. Cover with the lid and cook for another 5 to 6 minutes or until golden brown. Place on a cooling rack, remove rings and cool. Split with fork and serve.

*Cook's Note: Small tuna cans with tops and bottoms removed work well for metal rings.

Lemon Yogurt Pancakes

Mmmm sounds airy light and refreshing right?

Meh-not so much...these just weren't lemony enough for me. The concept sounds good though so I think I will make them again-add more lemon juice next time and probably use vanilla yogurt rather than plain. I made them with fat free milk and fat free plain yogurt so that really could have added to the blahs with these pancakes.

Please, don't get me wrong, they weren't bad at all-just weren't what I expected. The way I made them-they just came out kind of regular. I barely tasted the lemon-I should have added more zest. I will definitely try them another time and modify the recipe like I suggested above.

Ah well, I dressed them up a bit with some fresh sliced strawberries and some butter and squeezed a little lemon juice on top.

Lemon Yogurt Pancakes

1 1/2 c flour

1 1/2 t baking soda

3/4 t baking powder

1 T brown sugar

1/4 t salt

2 eggs

1 1/2 c vanilla yogurt

1/2 c milk

zest of 1 lemon + juice

1 T butter for cooking

1. In a large bowl, mix together the first 5 ingredients. In a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs and add in the remaining ingredients. Add the wet to the dry and gently fold together. Let rest for 10 minutes.

2. Melt a bit of butter in your griddle or cast iron pan and add a small amount of batter. Cook until bubbles appear and the edges look dry. Flip the cakes over and cook for a few minutes more.