brunch « (y)our food choices™

Of all the things in my baking repertoire, I have never attempted to make English muffins. Why? They don’t seem too complicated. A little yeasted dough cooked on a griddle pan for a few minutes on each side. Pancakes, right? I mean, how hard can it be?

I stumbled across Emma Christensen’s recipe from thekitchn.com and immediately wanted to try it, but this recipe was going to take way too much time. Even though I knew the muffins spend most of the time unattended, it was still going to take at least two days. I wanted English muffins today.

When I was ready to jump into a recipe, most of the day had already passed. With another quick google search I found Melissa Clark’s whole wheat English muffin recipe. They seemed to be more like a crumpet and less like an English muffin, but who am I to complain when these would take maybe two hours. And since this was my first attempt at homemade English muffins, why not go for instant-ish gratification? Plus, there was just enough sunlight for some good photos.

The muffins weren’t perfectly round, but the taste was amazing considering how simple this recipe is. We made them for Sunday dinner which turned out to be a great substitute for the typical roll. The leftovers were a great treat for breakfast Monday. We decide to use them as a shortcake-type platform for a faux strawberry shortcake. We used whole milk Greek yogurt in place of whipped cream. The strawberries macerated overnight in a little balsamic vinegar, sugar, and salt. The next morning, the strawberries were strained and the sauce reduced over medium heat with a touch of honey, and a few grinds of black pepper. We split the muffins and toasted them with a small pat of butter. Perfect for breakfast or a healthy dessert.

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English Muffins
yield 8

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 packet)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup plain whole milk yogurt
½ cup warm whole milk
½ tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 cup whole-wheat white flour (we like Josey Baker Bread’s flour)
½ teaspoon baking soda
Masa Harina (cornmeal), as needed

In a small bowl combine yeast and 1/3 cup warm water and let rest until yeast has dissolved, about 5 minutes.

Melt butter and put 2 tablespoons in a large mixing bowl, put the other 2 tablespoons in a small bowl and set aside. In the large bowl, whisk in yogurt, milk, honey, salt and the yeast mixture.

Add flour and baking soda to bowl and beat thoroughly with a spoon or rubber spatula until well combined. Cover bowl and let rest in a warm spot for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until dough has doubled.

Lightly dust a small baking sheet with Masa Harina (or cornmeal).

Place a large griddle pan over medium heat. Once pan is hot, brush some of the reserved melted butter onto the griddle. Using a large ice cream scoop or 1/2 cup measuring cup, drop batter onto the griddle to form round muffins about 4 inches in diameter, mounding the batter in the center. (You may need to coax the dough a little with your fingers, so be careful of the hot pan, and don’t worry if they’re not perfectly circular.) Cover griddle with a baking sheet and cook 4 to 6 minutes, until bottoms are golden brown. (Be careful not to let them burn.) If you don’t have a griddle pan you can use a large skillet and make the muffins in batches.

Uncover griddle and flip muffins using a spatula. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with a little Masa Harina. Cover again and cook 4 to 6 minutes or until the other sides are golden brown. Flip again and brush with butter. Cook for another minute or two, covered. Remove from the griddle and cool a few minutes.

Split the muffins with a fork and toast before eating with your favorite topping.

There is nothing like the taste of a nicely caramelized onion – deep, earthy, sweet and savory jam. But caramelizing onions is a time consuming labor of love well worth the effort, most of the time.

Lucky for those of us with pressure cookers, the geniuses in the labs of Modernist Cuisine came up with a brilliant hack to get those delicious browned onions cooked and ready to eat in half the time and with virtually no need for our attention once the lid is locked! This is seriously one of our favorite shortcuts to one of those foods we associate with very long, closely tended cooking times.

We put a batch of pressure cooker caramelized onions to use in an onion tart intended for a holiday brunch party. But we ended up eating the whole thing ourselves over the course of several days. No complaints here!

Any savory pie crust recipe will do. We’re partial to America’s Test Kitchen’s tart crust recipe. As for the custard filling, we adapted this one from Monday Morning Cooking Club: The Feast Goes On (recipe published on epicurious.com).

Caramelized Onion Tart

Pressure-Caramelized Onions

(From Modernist Cuisine At Home)

4 3/4 cups (500 g) yellow onion, sliced thin
1/4 teaspoon (1.5 g) baking soda
3 tablespoons (35 g) unsalted butter, cubed
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste

Combine sliced onions and baking soda in a large bowl, mixing thoroughly. Divide the onion mixture evenly into three 500 ml/16 oz. canning jars. Divide the butter evenly among the filled gars. Tighten the lids fully, and then unscrew them one-quarter turn so that the jars don’t explode.

Place the filled jars on a rack or trivet in the base of a pressure cooker, and add 1 inch of water. Pressure-cook at a gauge pressure of 1 bar/15 psi for 40 minutes. Start timing as soon as full pressure has been reached. Let the cooker cool, or run tepid water over the rim, to de pressurize it. Let the jar contents cool before opening to avoid splattering.

Transfer the cooked onions to a pot. Simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has reduced to a syrup, 10-12 minutes.

Season the onions to taste, and set aside.

Crust

(from The Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and chilled
2-3 tablespoons ice water

Spray 9-inch tart pan with vegetable oil spray. Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in food processor until combined, about 4 pulses. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture; pulse until mixture resembles course sand, about 15 pulses. Add 2 tablespoons ice water and process until large clumps form and no powdery bits remain, about 5 seconds, adding up to 1 tablespoon more water if dough will not form clumps. Transfer dough to prepared tart pan; pat dough into pan. Lay plastic wrap over dough and smooth out any bumps or shallow areas. Place tart shell on plate and freeze for 30 minutes.

Adjust over rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Place frozen tart shell on baking sheet. Spray piece of extra-wide Healey-duty aluminum foil with vegetable oil spray and gently press against dough and over edges of tart pan. Fill with pie weights and bake until top edge just starts to color and surface of dough no longer looks wet, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and remove foil and weights. Return baking sheet with tart shell to oven and bake until golden brown, 5-10 minutes. et baking sheet with tart shell on wire rack to cool while preparing the filling.

Custard Filling

1 cup heavy cream
4 large egg yolks
freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

In a bowl, gently beat egg yolks into into cream until well incorporated. Add caramelized onions and freshly grated nutmeg. Mix well to evenly distribute onions throughout custard. Pour into prepared tart shell and bake in a 350 degree oven until center of custard is set, approximately 40-45 minutes.

Remove tart from oven and let cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove rim of tart pan and carefully slide a spatula between tart pan bottom and tart to loosen it. Slide tart onto serving plate, slice and serve!

Variations: