Cheddar-Apple Muffins

 Charley The Muffin Man

Muffin #1 - Cheddar-Apple Muffins

       So, when I adopted my pup from the SPCA of Texas in Dallas, in January, his shelter name was Muffin. However, he is most definitely not a "Muffin". His name is Charley and his very, first name is "Charley The Muffin Man". His Instagram page his @charleythemuffinman. This series of muffin recipes are for him. This recipe is in one of my favorite cookbooks. The Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook published in 1996. It is one of the first cookbooks which I bought for myself. I used Colby-Jack cheese in lieu of plain cheddar, because that's what I had. I couldn't really taste the cheese in these muffins and I wished there was more flavor. Consider adding a bit of cinnamon or nutmeg or serving with cinnamon-sugar sprinkled on top. That said, I liked these muffins; they had a good texture. Try them and let me know what you think. Modification(s) in italics. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup finely shredded cheddar or Colby-Jack cheese (2oz)

1/3 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

2 tbsps sugar

2 1/2 tsps baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 beaten egg

3/4 cup milk

1/3 cup cooking oil

3/4 cup finely chopped, pealed apple

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease twelve large muffin cups (2 1/2-inch muffin cups) and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cheese, rolled oats, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture and set aside. In a separate medium-sized bowl, mix together the egg, milk and oil. Mix liquid mixture into the dry mixture. Stir until combined; the batter should be a little lumpy. Spoon mixture into muffin cups so that they are about 2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack for five minutes and remove from pan. Serve warm with butter and cinnamon-sugar if desired. 

Charley The Muffin Man and 
Cheddar-Apple Muffins

Week 10 - English Muffins

 English Muffins

Recipe 10 - 52 in 2022

Bread #2

    Bread recipe #2 is "English Muffins" comes from the same 1941 (fourteenth printing) of The Household Searchlight Recipe Book that Recipe #9 "Chicken Salad" came from.  So, yeah, I had fun making these, but they didn't turn out like I'd hoped. I thought there'd been too much flour in the first attempt and the batter/dough wouldn't drop like the directions, so I made a second attempt and used one cup less flour. It was obviously a thinner batter and I let that batter set for longer to "get lighter", which I guess meant for it to rise a bit. While that second attempt was "getting lighter", I did make one last muffin with the first batch of batter/dough and that muffin came out much thicker and looked more like a store bought English muffin.  The texture of the muffins with the original batter/dough, were more like the store bought English muffin texture, with the nooks and crannies. The texture of muffins from the second attempt, did not have the nooks and crannies.

    In the recipe's directions, you are supposed to soften the yeast in the milk and I didn't know how long to do that for. The first attempt, I didn't let it soak for long and the second attempt I soaked the yeast for like 20-30 minutes (guesstimate) 

    The taste on both batches of English muffins was fine, but again, they also turned out mostly flat, looking more like pancakes. Even though these didn't turn out like I wanted, they'd be great to serve with a thick stew or curry. Would I want to try making these again? Kind of/ sort of. I want English muffins, but I think it would/will take several attempts to 'perfect'. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups milk, scaled and cooled

1 tablespoon sugar

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cake compressed yeast or 1/2 cake dry yeast (I had to figure out an equivalent for a 'cake' of yeast; that answer is 1/2 of a packet of dry yeast (I used 1/2 a packet of Fleischmann's dry yeast)

1 egg, well beaten

1/8 teaspoon baking soda 

Directions:

Soften yeast in the cooled milk and add the sugar and salt. Add flour and mix thoroughly. (The original directions say to "Add sufficient flour to make a drop batter.", but the directions also calls for three cups of flour. I chose to use the full three cups flour in the first attempt and just two cups flour in the second attempt.) Set in a warm place and "allow to become light" (which I took to mean let the batter/dough rise). Add egg and baking soda. Mix thoroughly and drop on to hot griddle (If you have muffin rings, drop batter/dough into the ring, to help with making that round shape). Cook slowly on one side, then turn and cook the other side. 

Split muffin from the first attempt

Split muffin from the first attempt, served with homemade cherry preserves

Sad muffin from the second attempt

Muffins from the second attempt

Split muffin from the second attempt