Dan Lepard has hit a home run with these English muffins. They're what I imagine English muffins should be and, in my opinion, they're about as good as it gets. Mr. Lepard posted a link to his recipe in The Guardian newspaper article, which I have inserted below the photo.
Anis Bouabsa baguettes with Sourdough
Anis Bouabsa baguettes with Sourdough Crumb
KAF French Style Flour........500 gms
Water..............................370 gms
Starter.............................100 gms
The first thing I did was search the internet for breadbaking information (ok, so I did use a computer). There I learned about "real" breadbaking- the kind requiring a starter rather than yeast. A challenge! I was totally into that.
Hi,
I've newly discovered the concept of "crumb". I hope to be able to reliably create open crumb artisan breads (I think that's the right terminology). I'm at the beginning of this process. My current goal is to decide on a flour. I have two contenders, I prefer organically grown. I live in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. Seeing as Canada is a big wheat producer I want to find a Canadian flour. (I'm a US ex-pat, so I'm ridiculously attached to this country)
This being the second time I've baked bread, I decided to try my childhood favorite.
Anadama Bread (from www.anadamabread.com)
Ingredients
½ c. coarse cornmeal
2 T. butter
2 c. boiling water
1 tsp. salt
½ c. unsulphured blackstrap molasses
1 pkg. dried yeast
5 c. unbleached flour
Making it
For my first attempt at English muffins I decided to try Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe from her Bread Bible. The recipe uses a sponge/poolish and is an enriched (with butter and honey) dough. I followed her recipe to the letter, except for diameter size. After mixing I placed the dough in the fridge overnight for retardation. She says it can stay in the fridge up to 24 hours.
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I've been meaning for ages to rave about the onion rings we made weeks ago using Tanna's (My Kitchen in Half Cups) brilliant idea for using up left over sludge after feeding the wild yeast. They were fabulous!! And very very bad for us. Because we want to have onion rings every day. This is not good.Mark's Olive Loaf post got me thinking about the flavors I like and what would work well in bread. There are a few combinations that seem to be naturally delicious in other situations. Garlic/lemon/olive oil for example or swap the lemon with another acid, say basalmic vinegar or some other milder vinegar. The contrast between the elements seems to be what makes my senses perk up. Chicken wings with strong garlic and lemon is good. Mint jelly with hot pepper is a surprise treat. Each is a clear distinct flavor on it's own.
I'm indexing the bread recipes in all my books (quite a task) and I'm getting a chance to see what all recipes I have. In one book, "Making Bread at Home" by Tom Jaine, I found this 100% whole grain recipe: German Sourdough Rye Bread.
Your starter uses 60g wholegrain rye flour, 1/4 cup water at 110 degrees, and a pinch of caraway seeds. You leave that at about 80 degrees for two days, stirring twice a day. As always, I used my oven with the light on.
