Have You Seen the Muffin Man??

One of Jim's favorite times camping with his family was when his father would make "Dad's Famous" English muffins. Essentially, they were just store bought muffins grilled on both sides in butter and slathered with Food Club grape jelly. But Dad made them and they were a welcome treat from those little individual boxes of Kellogg cereal or variety packs of Quaker Oats (not the red ones!!!) that we ate all summer on our trips across the country.

Peta has developed a fondness for English muffins of late and Jim has always wanted to try Alton Brown's recipe. So when we were at the shops, Jim said, "No Peta, don't buy those store brand English muffins. I'll make them for you!" Unfortunately, Peta has a good memory, so Jim arose early to make the muffins. Imagine his dismay when he read the ingredient list and saw "powdered milk", the one thing of which the pantry is quite bereft. Typing quickly, he found this recipe and, even though he hates the AllRecipe site, was on his way.

But wait, English muffins are not quick breads and take yeast, which means a punch down and rising times. Quick, hurry, while Peta slumbers. The process took and hour and a half and Jim used melted butter rather than the shortening. By using a tuna can, we got 21 muffins rather than 18, so each muffin has only 141 calories, rather than 190. However, the muffins from the second rolling had to be allowed longer to rise. We suggest that you roll them all out, cook the ones from the first roll out (more than half of them), remove them and then put a few more in the pan along with your eggs, eat breakfast and then put the muffins from the second roll on while you clean the dishes.

Good eats for cheap.

Jim and Peta

PS: We also put store bought Mimosa Jam that Monica and Chris gave us on an eggless muffin.