"You don't get tired of muffins, but you don't find inspiration in them." George Bernard Shaw
It's January 1 2025 and a quarter of a century has gone by - just like that. And as you can see I have given up on art for my desk calendar inspirations, and turned to the New York Times who produce a recipe calendar. So in spite of Bernard Shaw's pessimism about finding inspiration I do indeed hope to find inspiration in muffins.
Because this is the first recipe from the New York Times desk calendar - English muffin bread casserole - from somebody with the very strange name of Lidey Heuck. But then lots of Americans have strange names. Well I couldn't resist and looked up her photo - and here she is - a typical American young lady with long hair and big teeth. Well I was curious, and I suppose her name demonstrates the rich cultural mix of the American population.
But back to the food. This is theoretically a breakfast recipe, although I doubt that many of us would concoct a dish like this for breakfast. I mean it takes at least an hour to make plus a 'chilling' time of at least an hour. Who has time in the morning for this? Or energy? Although admittedly you could do all the preparation the night before. But you still have to cook it for 45 minutes - plus the time for the oven to heat up. So no - not really for breakfast. An elaborate brunch perhaps, after all it's quite an enticing recipe. It's a sort of bread and butter pudding I suppose, with a sausage meat and spring onion mix in there too.
The reason I am featuring it however, apart from the newness of the calendar is the English muffin thing. I know I have done crumpets but I don't think I have done muffins. They are not to be confused and neither should they be confused with pikelets, farls or welsh cakes, oatcakes ... although as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says:
"whatever you call them, they're all vehicles for butter (a dollop or two of jam wouldn't go amiss, either). Another thing they have in common is that they're all yeasty doughs or sconey batters traditionally cooked on a griddle."
Yes butter - and lots of it, although Hannah Glasse, who was the first to write a recipe for muffins back in 1749 - really goes overboard it seems to me:
"Toast them with a Fork crisp on both Sides, then with your Hand pull them open, and they will be like a Honey-Comb; lay in as much Butter as you intend to use, then clap them together again, and set it by the Fire, when you think the Butter is melted turn them, that both Sides may be butter'd alike, but don't touch them with a Knife, either to spread or cut them open, if you do they will be as heavy as Lead." Hannah Glasse
That point about not cutting with a knife, however, is one of the absolute decrees about muffins. You just tear them apart with your hands. And the inside should be as a reddit commenter, speaking of somebody else's recipe said:
"However, I do want to offer that this recipe, like a lot of recipes produces rolls in the shape of English muffins rather than the characteristic holey interior of an English muffin full of nooks and crannies. And any recipe that has you able to cut out the muffins or roll them into balls will suffer from this. In order to get a proper spongy English muffin you need a very wet dough that is basically batter." SMN27/reddit
The picture above illustrates the cragginess of the interior - it's from a Serious Eats recipe for No-knead English muffins from Stella Parks who reiterates that:
"We're all in agreement that a knife is the wrong way to go, razing the craggy nooks and crannies into a level field of potholes."
Then once split you toast them and ideally cover them with butter.
The main point of contention - there are always points of contention - is whether to bake or cook on a griddle. I suspect that baking may well work, but that ideally, and 'authentically' the griddle wins. There is also argument about whether you can use sourdough instead of yeast, and other grains. I suspect that might be a matter of taste. Also how runny/sof the dough should be. However, unlike the American muffin, which is really a kind of cupcake to my mind, and altogether too stodgy a thing, there doesn't seem to be much taste for adding other things such as dried fruit to the mix. Although you will find some with cranberries or raisins and somesuch.
So here are a few sample recipes to try out. I've never made any so really should give it a go, even though I'm a crumpet girl at heart, not a muffin girl. English muffins from Delia; and from Jamie, whose recipe was tested out by De l'Amour en Cocotte; the River Cottage version from Daniel Stevens; two from Dan Lepard - Cornmeal muffins and
Cider Vinegar muffins - both published in The Guardian and English muffins from Paul Hollywood on the BBC website. All terribly British - except for the French intervention. But then the French are really English and vice versa aren't they even though they protest that they aren't.
Okay, so you've made your muffins, you don't quite feel up to the New York Times breakfast casserole, so what else can you do with them other than slather them with butter and jam?
Well maybe most importantly Eggs Benedict are always made with English muffins, although I guess if you are not up to a breakfast casserole, you're probably not going to be up to making Hollandaise sauce. But just in case you want to give somebody a treat - always supposing they like poached eggs, bacon and spinach as well as the Hollandaise sauce - so not in my house I fear - you can follow Jamie's recipe or the New York Times although everybody will have a recipe they consider to be the best.
Or use them instead of hamburger buns next time you make burgers - well McDonalds already do with their Mighty McMuffin on the breakfast menu which has a few variations on the them. Good idea, but you can probably do better.
Well really you can use them any way you would use bread from sandwiches to pizza and smashed avocado on toast. So just a couple of examples: English muffin breakfast sandwich cups - Eat, Live, Travel, Write; Muffins, speck and quince cream - Nigel Slater and English muffin french toast from The Comfort of Cooking.
Of course you can just buy the from the supermarket, and for this last bunch of recipes, that's what those cooks did - including Nigel. I realise more and more that I often write about all these things, get excited about them and say I'll make them, but I don't. Or if I do the result lies hidden in a pantry or the fridge somewhere, only to eventually be thrown out. I'm not writing down resolutions this year, because they always fail which is depressing, but I still carry some in my head. Not that that will make any difference to either whether they get done or not, or whether I feel less depressed when I fail, but maybe I can pretend I didn't make them.
So I might go and have a go at a blueberry shrub right now. I could even have a go at making the dough for the muffins and leave it in the fridge overnight as several recipes recommended.
Maybe.
The letter E. It was good walking weather today so I took a few E photos. this is my best I think - Electricity - which might give a hint that the others were not that great - Eucalypts - there were three of those; Exit; the letter E; Earth and Easel.
THE BEGINNINGS OF YEARS GONE BY
January 1
2024 - New - which began with this wonderful quote from Neil Gaiman:
"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art - write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself." Neil Gaiman
Amen to that.
2022 - Impressionism 2022
2021 - 20 to 21 - Coming of age
2020 - Nothing
2019 - A beautiful new year
2017 - Paul Cezanne's apples
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