English Muffins

Based on Alton Brown's recipe. We never have powdered milk or shortening, so there are some substitutions. We'll see if it works out.

Ingredients

• 1tbsp sugar + a little
  
• 1tsp salt
  
• 2c unbleached white flour
  
• 2.25tsp yeast
  
• 1 + 1/3c warmed milk with
  
• 1tbsp butter melted into it
  

Put flour in a bowl, and whisk in the sugar, salt, and yeast. Warm the milk in the microwave and melt the butter into it. It should be warm enough that you can comfortably put your finger into it - you don't want it to be too hot or you will kill the yeast. Add the milk mixture to the flour and stir together. Cover and let sit for about half an hour.

When it's done sitting, heat a griddle to 300 degrees. Place metal rings such as cookie cutters or small cans with both ends cut off (cans like you get tuna or bamboo shoots in) on the griddle. Spray with PAM. Add batter to the rings (how much? I don't really know. It's trial and error. Maybe 1/8 cup.) and cover with something (like a cookie sheet). After 5 or 6 minutes, flip the ring and cook the other side of the muffin. Take them off and you're done.

Thoughts: Some of the english muffins (though not all) had a tendency to look a little underdone in the middle. This was because I used too much batter for the mold, but it was tough to tell when I was making them. Maybe I should systematize this. Otherwise, these turned out quite nice. Just make sure to split them with a fork rather than cutting them in half with a bread knife.

Disaster Index: 2/10