February 26, 2021

ENGLISH MUFFIN AND A FEW SANDWICHES

My favorite meal of the day is breakfast. I love waking up and making myself a huge breakfast with oat pancakes, a huge cup of coffee and some fresh fruits. I’ve even had breakfast for lunch or dinner. You are going to tell me you don’t like those huge breakfast buffets at hotels or all inclusive ones? Any time I can, I make myself a huge sandwich with an english muffin, eggs, a side of fruits, anything!

I preffer savory breakfasts over sweet ones. Normally, I begin with some fresh fruit and then, i dig in. My favorite breakfast foods are sandwiches. Huge, delicious breakfast sandwiches that keep me full for hours! I don’t even look at the sweets section at hotels.

The original recipe for this english muffin is from Cristina Tosi’s book MILK BAR LIFE. I barely changed anything to fit my personal taste.

WHAT IS AN ENGLISH MUFFIN?

The english muffins is also known as a hot muffin or breakfast muffin. Is a small bread made with yeast that is shaped as a circle. Most of the time, it is spronkled with cornmeal. If you have a chocolate or sweet huge cupcake shaped treat in mind, this is not it.

The english muffin is savory, small and normally combined with eggs, cream cheese, bacon, or jams.

MY FAVORITE SANDWICHES:

The first sandwich that I like to make with this english muffin is pretty easy. It’s a combination of eggs and avocado. You can make the eggs the way you want! Scrambled, poached, fried, even boiled.

Smash the avocado, season with salt and pepper and then place the egg on top. Delicious and so easy to put together.

The second sandwich I like to make is the best breakfast sandwich I’ve ever had. When I stay at hotels, i make this beauty but since I made this at home I decided to give it an extra something!

Star by cooking the bacon like you normally would. MAke it in a skillet, you want all that greasy deliciousness, trust me. Once that is ready, place it on a place and pour the remaining greasy out. Don’t wash it though!

In that same skillet, add a bit of butter and melt it completely. On top of that beautiful bacon flavored melted butter, place the english muffin slices to toast. Turn one of the slices around and place a slice of your favorite cheese to melt. Make scrambled eggs as you normally would.

Make the sandwich by placing a slice of bacon on top of the cheese, place the eggs on top and a second slice of bacon on top of that. Place the other slice of the english muffin on top and enjoy!

TIPS FOR A PERFECT ENGLISH MUFFIN:

Measure your ingredients: This recipe comes together pretty quickly on a stand mixer. Plus, a few of the ingredients have specific temperatures. So, to make it easier, measure everything and have it ready to go in small bowls.

Resting time: The original recipe says to let the dough rest for an hour or overnight. I recommend leaving it overnight. Make the dough the night before and bake the muffins the next day.

Keeping them: Keep the muffins in an airtight container to mantain their freshness.

EQUIPMENT:

Bowls: You will need one big bowl for the dough to rest in, the bowl of your stand mixer and a couple of small ones for the ingredients.

Stand mixer: For this recipe, Cristin Tosi, specifies that you use a stand mixer with the dough hook.

Baking sheets: Once you shape the muffins, placethem in a baking sheet to rest in the fridge. After the first step of toasting the muffins in the skillet they have to bake for an extra 10 minutes in the oven. I used two baking sheets for the recipe.

Skillet: The first step in baking the muffins is toasting them in a skillet for a couple of minutes. This is what makes the muffins have that nice toasty colors on the bottom and top.

Fork: I used a fork to whisk the yeast with the water instead of an actual whisk. I found it easier to disolve this way.

Teflon Spatula: When toasting the muffins in the skillet, you will need one of these. Be very careful when turning them so that they don’t deflate.

Measures: Cup and tablespoon measures.

Yield: 6 Muffins

ENGLISH MUFFIN AND A FEW SANDWICHES

Ingredients

2 tbsp active dry yeast.
1 tbsp lukewarm water
1/2 Cup warmed buttermilk
1 Cup bread flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt (the original recipe calls for 1 1/2)
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
Cornmeal for sprinkling
Olive oil for the bowl ( butter works too)

Instructions

Whisk the yeast with the water until completely melted. Add buttermilk to the yeast mixture.
Pour to the bowl of the stand mixer with the dough handle.
Add flour, sugar and finally salt. Mix on low, medium-low speed. Mix fro about 3 to 4 minutes. The dough is pretty liquid.
With the mixer still on, add the butter. From there, mix on low speed for 7 to 8 minutes.
Grease another bowl and place the dough in there with the help of a silicone spatula or spoon. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for an hour or overnight.
Sprinkle some flour on the counter and place the dough o top. Knead for a little bit to deflate. Shape into a log and cut into 6 equal pieces.
With a thin layer of flour on your hands shape the pieces into balls. Place on a baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal.
Slightly press the balls with you hands. Carefully turn them around and carefully press again. This is to cover the bases with cornmeal.
Make sure the muffins have at least an inch between them so they poof correctly.
Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 250 F.
Heat a dry skillet over very low heat for 5 minutes.
Place cornmeal on the skillet and heat it for an extra minute.
Place the muffins on the skillet. Take you time in this step. When the muffin starts creating a dome on top and the sides look a bit less bright its time to flip it. Around 5 minutes per side.
Place muffins in a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.