Time Lapse Raisin Bread!

Sweet or Savory? I pick Savory.

    I am a fan of breakfast. As they say, it is the most important meal of the day. I may have a loose interpretation as to when you can call a meal breakfast, but I love it nonetheless. I am an even bigger fan of eating breakfast foods for lunch or dinner. One of my favorites is the english muffin. The ones you get in the store are great and serve as the perfect vehicle for other breakfast food combinations. These english muffins are delicious by themselves or with some cheese, bacon, and eggs in a do-it-yourself style egg McMuffin. Because these take about three hours to rise and proof, I decided to make these for a  breakfast at dinnertime sort of thing.
   This recipe or formula comes from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Extraordinary Bread. I am really into these days and I have been really happy with everything that I have made from it. It makes six muffins.

2 1/2 Cups Bread Flour
1/2 Tablespoon Sugar
3/4 Teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon unsalted butter or shortening
3/4 cup to 1 cup milk or buttermilk



Combine dry ingredients:flour, sugar, salt, and yeast.
Add butter and milk

Knead dough for 10 minutes until it is tacky but not sticky

Oil a bowl and coat the dough in the oil than cover it.

Let it ferment for 60-90 minutes

Then cut the dough into six pieces and then roll them into balls. 

Put dough balls onto a parchment paper lined sheet pan. Lightly oil the balls and cover loosely with plastic wrap. 

Let them proof for 60-90 minutes 

Then comes the fun part!

Heat a skillet at medium heat and pre-heat the oven to 350.

Spray the skillet with oil then place the muffins in the skillet making sure not to let the muffins touch. I did it in to batches of three or four. Let them brown on both sides in english muffin fashion and then immediately put them in the oven for 5-8 minutes. Don't wait for the all the muffins to be finished on the skillet to put them in the oven. 

They come out looking pretty legit. I felt pretty accomplished with myself when they came out. 

Gosh Darn Good Rolls

Dinner rolls are a wonderful thing, at least I think so. There are a lot of alright rolls out there and some great rolls out there. These were pretty fantastic. My last post was of a white bread recipe that could be used for rolls. The loaf that I made didn't quite rise like it needed to and it was much more dense than it should have been.

 I definitely prefer this recipe for rolls just because this is such a sweet and buttery bread that goes perfectly with a savory meal. I had them with a delicious birthday dinner.

Some lovely flowers from the boyfriend and an adorable card from the mom. 

 This time the bread rose perfectly and the rolls were light, but still  creamy and soft inside. It was just like the white bread recipe in my last post but instead of shaping it like a loaf I shaped the dough into little balls and let them rise a little.

Then you bake them for 10-12 minutes or until they are golden brown.

They are a delicious addition to a meal and not too much trouble, that little extra something to a nice meal.