English Muffins

At our house, there is a love affair with English Muffins.  In fact, even the baby will forsake his fruit to indulge in a hot buttery English Muffin.  However, they are costly, so we usually only buy them if they are in the reduced bin at the bakery outlet.

Monday, I got a hankering for an English Muffin.  I checked my Dining On a Dime cookbook.  They had a recipe for English Muffin Bread.  I'm sure I would have liked it, but it required 2c of milk and 7 cups of flour, over half of what I had left in the cupboard to last me the whole week.  I closed that beloved book, and turned to the internet.  Finding new recipes would probably be my number one reason to keep internet access.

This is what I found, and let me tell you, it doesn't get any easier than this to make bread at home!

http://www.veganappetite.com/2009/05/english-muffins.html

I know not many are interested in eating vegan, but I would urge you to try it for baked goods, that way you can save the eggs to be scrambled for a breakfast and the milk to pour on your cereal on a saturday instead of in your baked yummies.

The only changes I made were this:  I used 100% white whole wheat flour like one of the reviewers did.  But I reduced the amount by 1/4c.  Next time I'm going to add a little bit of vital wheat gluten flour to help with the rising.  Also, I used (unstrained) homemade almond milk for the soy.  

They were AMAZING!  I made them late afternoon, so for dinner we popped them in the toaster and slathered them with some I Cannot Believe It's Not Butter spread.  The mmm's abounded.  Phil asked if it was easy to make and I said yep, couldn't be easier.  When I responded that I'd make them again, Phil promptly ordered some silicon english muffin rings.

You have to understand that Phil is a bread snob.  I've tried my hand numerous times at making different breads, buns, biscuits, etc.  Rarely have I encountered a hearty this is great.  Usually there are kind comments with suggestions for the next time.  But this time, nothing like that.  Just a hearty make them again they are amazing!

I am thrilled to have found something so easy and tasty to make for my family.  Not only can I make english muffins for cheap for my family, I can make them whole grain and preservative free too!  This was a much needed success as last week was kind of a bust in the cooking realm.

I'm excited for the muffin rings to come in so I can whip up another batch, hopefully for Saturday breakfast!