In week 12 of the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge we visit English Muffins.  I have long been a fan of Thomas’ english muffins, famous for their nooks and crannies, which are excellent at storing lots of melted salted butter.  I figured that homemade english muffins would beat the Thomas’ version hands down.  Peter Reinhart promised big holes, like the professionals get, if we can work with the soft dough and grill them at just the right time, catching them on the rise. I was up for the challenge.

This dough came together very easily, but I have to admit I was surprised that the recipe only makes 6 english muffins.  All the other recipes from the book have  yielded gargantuan breads.  The dry ingredients, (bread flour, sugar, salt and yeast) are mixed with a bit of butter and some milk and kneaded in the mixer for about 8-10 minutes.  Then the dough is set aside to ferment, until it doubles in size, about 60-90 minutes.

It was a very warm day and as usual, I was multi-tasking and didn’t quite catch the dough at the ” just doubled” stage.  It looks like it tripled!  Oh well, no harm done, or so I innocently thought.  I weighed the dough and divided it into 6 equal pieces, and formed the little boules.

The balls of dough are then lightly oiled and sprinkled with cornmeal, covered with plastic wrap and left to rest until nearly doubled in size.  I have to admit, this was an instruction I struggled with.  I had a really hard time knowing when they were nearly doubled.

It reminded me of going to the optometrist and getting your eyes examined.  My very first optometrist was my dad.  He’d put those lenses in front of my eyes and say, “Is this better, or is this better?”, while he changed the magnification only infinitesimally.  I could never tell which one was better but I was always too embarrassed to say so.   Truthfully, I just thought he didn’t know what he was doing but I never wanted to make him feel bad, so I just lied and picked one.  It was only after he died, and I had to go to another optometrist that I realized that my dad wasn’t a bad optometrist after all.  I experienced this inability to tell the difference at my new optometrist too.  Sorry dad, it was me not you!!

Now you look at these two pictures and see if you can tell if they are nearly doubled in size.  The one on top  is just after I formed the boules and the one below is after 90 minutes of proofing, when I figured that, they looked almost doubled.

Then it was time to cook the muffins.  English muffins are baked in a frying pan or cooked on a griddle and then finished in the oven.  I gently transferred them to the pan and cooked the first side over medium heat for about 5 minutes until they were golden brown.  They are supposed to spread out on their own but mine still looked like little balls so I helped matters along and squished them gently with a spatula.  Then I flipped them over and cooked the second side.

Once the second side was done they went into a preheated oven for an additional 5 minutes, to finish cooking the inside.  After letting them cool for 30 minutes, we split them open with a fork.  Fork splitting, apparently gives english muffins their characteristic nooks and crannies.  The moment of truth…

Even with the fork splitting, the nooks and crannies were absent.  I’m not quite sure where I went wrong.  I suspect that I over fermented (first rising) as well as over proofed (second rising) them.  Peter Reinhart says that if you catch them “on the rise” you will be rewarded with the nooks and crannies.  I think my muffins went past the rise and I missed my opportunity.  I also suspect that since my little balls did not spread out on their own, that my dough was not wet enough and if there were any air holes inside, I may have squished them when I pressed down with my spatula.  However, I toasted them and slathered them with salted butter and American Spoon sour cherry preserves and they were very tasty, but not as good as Thomas’.

Although I was a little disappointed with the results, it was still a worthwhile exercise as  I was reminded the other day of one of the reasons I began this challenge.  I was reading a book review of Marion Cunningham’s “The Breakfast Book” on epicurious.com.  In the book Marion says, “Cooking is one of the legacies we can leave to the future, and I would like to be remembered for my baking. We all know we’re not immortal, but after I’m gone, I would like my son and daughter to be able to say, ‘Our mother made real yeast bread for breakfast.”  I couldn’t have said it better myself!

P.S.  My sons and daughter loved the english muffins.

The day I made bread # 11 in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge, in late July, I was expecting 12 guests for the weekend at my cottage.  It’s not quite as daunting as it sounds, as I learned a long time ago, that when weekend guests ask what they can bring, assign them a meal.  So I was going to make Friday night dinner and Sunday brunch and had assigned Saturday lunch to one friend, Saturday cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and dinner to two other friends.  So all in all, I was in good shape.  Or so I thought, until I woke up Friday morning with a headache, fever and canker sores in my mouth.  Luckily I had my niece here visiting from New York and she rolled up her sleeves and helped me bake.

First we tackled the challah dough that I had made the day before and fermented in the fridge overnight.  We needed to braid 2 loaves for Friday night’s dinner.  My niece was keen to tackle the 6 strand challah I had seen on a youtube video.  So we brought the laptop into the kitchen and after several attempts, braiding and then unbraiding, she mastered it. 

I must say, you learn a lot about a person when you braid bread with them.  What my niece lacks in the way of fine motor and visual perception skills (sorry Sam), she more than makes up for in determination.  She was not about to let this bread get the best of her and after about 30 minutes, she had successfully braided it.  I have to admit, that I have tried to do the 6 strand braid myself, about 3 times now and each time I failed, gave up and did a basic 3 strand braid.

After the challah was in the oven, we made the cranberry walnut celebration bread.  To be perfectly honest, I was not that keen on making this bread.  We have been doing so many enriched breads and I was kind of tired of them.  From reading fellow BBA challenger’s blogs, I gathered I was not alone in feeling this way.  Oggi at “I Can Do That” talked about “celebration fatigue” and I know just what she means.  However, I signed on to this challenge and I’m committed to bake each bread, in order.

I decided to incorporate some whole wheat flour into this bread.  I used about 4 ounces whole wheat bread flour and the balance (9.5 ounces) was white bread flour.  Although the recipe called for orange extract, I used orange zest instead.  I also toasted my walnuts first.

The dough comes together fairly easily.  Dry ingredients are put in the mixer bowl and wet ingredients are added and kneaded for about 5 minutes on medium speed with the dough hook.  It is a soft and pliable dough.  I decided to knead in the cranberries and walnuts by hand.  it seems as though you will never incorporate them all, but finally, they are all crammed into the dough.

Then the dough is set aside to ferment and double in size, about 2 hours.  While it was fermenting I prepped the rest of my dinner.  (For anyone interested, I made London broil on the BBQ, dilled green bean salad, roasted potatoes and a tomato, basil and purple onion salad with a balsamic vinaigrette.)  The directions in the book call for doing one large braid and then topping it off with a smaller braid, sort of a double decker braid.  My head was pounding and I did not have the brain capacity to do the math necessary for getting the proportions correct, so I just did a 3 strand braid and coiled it into a circle.

The loaf proofed for about 90 minutes and grew quite large.  I egg washed it and baked it for about 50 minutes.  I set it out to cool and after about an hour my guests started arriving.  I had planned to serve the bread toasted for breakfast on Saturday morning but everyone who came in smelled and then saw the bread and wanted to taste it.  Slice by slice, it disappeared.  My mouth was so sore, I did not even taste it, but everyone said it was delicious!

I can’t leave you wondering about  how the rest of the weekend turned out.  I spent the entire day in bed on Saturday, knowing that lunch and dinner were taken care of.  By Sunday morning I hade a sore throat and no voice but had 24 bagels, proofing in the fridge, waiting patiently to be boiled and baked.  I wisely decided that I should not handle any food as I was so filled with germs.  I wrote out the instructions and had my friends do the work.  They were thrilled to be making the bagels and marveled at how simple it was and how delicious they were.  I think I may have sold a few more copies of the book!

I am only just now beginning to come down from that cinnamon cloud I have been living on for the past two weeks.  I have gone through an entire jar of cinnamon in just 13 days.  Usually a jar will last about 4 months in my house.  I used about 2/3 of the jar making cinnamon and sticky buns, (okay I confess to making them four times!!) and the rest of the jar was used making this week’s Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge,  Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread. 

The next statement I am about to make may shock and surprise you.  This bread actually improves with age.  That’s not a phrase normally associated with bread but with this loaf, it happens to be true.  While it was delicious fresh and warm from the oven, the next morning, thickly sliced, lightly toasted and slathered with (salted!) butter, it was sublime.

This bread came together beautifully, although not for the first time I silently cursed Peter Reinhart (PR) for putting the measurements in imperial rather than metric. Trying to measure out .31 ounces of salt is impossible. Weighing 9 grams of salt (the metric equivalent of .31 ounces) is easy. This rant has been brought to you by the “Cookbooks Go Metric” committee (me).  Anyways, forgive this aside, back to the Cinnamon Raisin Bread. 

It begins by combining the dry ingredients (bread flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and cinnamon) in the bowl of the mixer. 

Next the wet ingredients (egg, melted butter, milk, and water) are combined and added to the dry.

I mixed the dough on medium speed for about 8 minutes.  I needed to add an additional 3 tablespoons of flour.  The final dough was “soft and pliable, tacky but not sticky”, exactly as RP prescribed.  I learned from fellow BBA challenger  Phyl at “Of Cabbages and Kings“, that “the easiest way is to tell if your dough is tacky or sticky is to press your hand onto the dough and then lift it up. If the dough pulls up with your hand and then releases (so your hand comes away clean), the dough is tacky. If you end up with dough stuck to your hand, it’s sticky.”

The raisins and walnuts are kneaded in by hand at the end of the mixing period so they don’t get too crushed.  I toasted my walnuts first to really bring out their nutty essence.

The next step is to let the dough ferment (the first rising) for at least 2 hours or until doubled in bulk.  I have always had trouble with the instruction, “doubled in bulk”.. I used to let my dough rise in a bowl and could never judge when it had exactly doubled.  I learned a tip from my fellow challengers on how to easily tell.  They let their dough rise in a square plastic container and put a rubber band around the outside at the top of the dough.  As the dough rises you can easily judge that moment when it has doubled.  So simple but brilliant!

Here is the dough after 3 hours.  Easy to tell it has doubled.  Actually it more than doubled because I went to exercise, got distracted and forgot about it.

Next the dough is divided in half and each piece is rolled out to an 8 x 5 inch rectangle.  For an extra burst of cinnamon flavour the whole surface is sprinkled with a cinnamon sugar mixture.

Then the dough is rolled up into a tight log and placed in a small (8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch) loaf pan for the second rising (proofing).

Once the dough “crests above the lip of the pan”,  about 2 1/2 hours later, they’re ready for the oven.

They go into a 350 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes until an instant read thermometer, inserted into the center of the bread, registers 190 degrees F.  The bread will be golden brown all over.

I thought that the  bottom of the loaf was quite beautiful so I shot that to show you as well!

To really boost the cinnamon flavour PR suggests brushing the loaf with melted butter and then sprinkling the top with cinnamon sugar.  Is it any wonder I have used an entire jar of cinnamon this month?

Brushed with melted butter.

Topped with cinnamon sugar.

After an agonizing 90 minute wait (I sent impatient angry husband on a bike ride as the aroma was driving him wild!!), we sliced into it and had a few slices with a glass of sauvignon blanc.  Interesting flavour combo.

While this bread was delicious stilll warm from the oven, it really shone the next morning, toasted with butter and a latte!!  I’ll definately be making this one again.  Thanks Mr Reinhart for another keeper!

There comes a time in almost every woman’s life when she realizes with crystal clarity that “Yikes,  I’m turning into my mother!”  (I don’t think the same is true for men and their fathers). That time happened for me last week while I was standing in line, waiting to pay, at the Smiths Falls Walmart. 

I went in to buy some raisins to make the cinnamon buns.  While there, I picked up a few other items.  There was an older woman in line behing me.  She tapped me on the shoulder and when I turned around I saw that she had picked up the sports bra I had in my cart.  “Excuse me” she said, “Is this a brassiere?”  I replied that yes indeed it was.  She then proceeded to ask me the price, and upon hearing I was paying $16.00 for a bra, she felt it her duty to inform me that there were bras available for $4.00 at “Giant Tiger” (a discount store, about one step up from the dollar store).

By this time she felt that we were well acquainted enough and she proceeded to lift up her shirt to show me this bargain bra!  I really did not want or intend to look but it’s like a car accident, you can’t tear your eyes away from the wreck!    All I can say is, you get what you pay for.  This bra had no support at all and her boobs drooped down to her stomach.

As I stood there wishing the ground would open up and swallow me whole, wondering “why me?”, it suddenly occurred to me that it’s all in the DNA.  When I was little, my siblings and I would marvel at the way my mother knew the life stories and troubles of almost every stranger she encountered.  She knew the pharmacist’s mother-in-law problems, she knew that grocery check-out girl’s boyfriend had cheated on her, and she knew that although the dry cleaner’s daughter was 5 years old, she still was not sleeping through the night.  My mother emitted some kind of aura that drew strangers towards her.   My mother has many fine qualities, why this particular one was passed on to me I do not know.  I just hope it goes away soon!

 Just thought I’d share that little moment with you all!  Anyways, on to cinnamon buns!

Finally week #8 of the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge.  This was the recipe I have been waiting to make.  I am one of those people who cut out interesting recipes and then file them away to try at some later date.  At the end of the year, when I go through that file, I inevitably find at least 10 different recipes for cinnamon buns.  Yet, I never bake any of them.  It always seems to be too much of an ordeal.  Plus, secretly, I think I am afraid to be alone in the kitchen with 12 freshly baked cinnamon buns.  I’m not sure how many would survive before my family came home.  However, cinnamon buns was this week’s assignment and I have always been a good student when it comes to doing my homework.

I decided to do half cinnamon buns and half sticky buns.  While this is a one day bread, I decided to begin at night and let the buns proof in the fridge overnight so that I could bake them the next morning.

All ready to go:

Cinnamon bun mise-en-place

Mixing up the dough was fairly simple.  It begins with creaming together the butter,  sugar and salt in the mixer with the paddle attachment.

Next whisk in the egg and lemon zest.  Finally add the yeast and milk and flour (I used all-purpose).   Once the dough forms a ball, you are instructed to switch to the dough hook attachment.  Mine never formed a ball, so I added about 1/4 cup more flour and it sort of formed a ball so I switched to the dough hook.  Here is the dough at the beginning of the mixing period.  It was very wet and sticky.  I had my doubts about this forming a dough I could actually work with, but I took a leap of faith and let the machine do it’s work for 10 minutes.

The beginning of the dough mixing.

Finally after 10 minutes and about an additional 1/4 cup of flour the mixing was complete.  The dough did come together as promised. 

After 10 minutes of mixing with the dough hook.

Then it was time for the dough to have it’s primary fermentation (that’s baker’s speak for the first rise.)  Into a greased container it went until it doubled in size.

Dough ready for primary fermentation

While the dough was rising, I mixed up the caramel glaze for the sticky buns.  The recipe in the book was created by Peter Reinhart’s wife, Susan.  It is an amazing feat of baking chemistry that turns a gooey mixture made from white and brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, salt and vanilla extract into a caramel glaze.  The mixture is spread on the bottom of the baking pan and then the cinnamon buns are placed on top.  As it bakes the sugar caramelizes.  The trick, he says, is to catch it just as it begins to turn a golden amber.  Then it will cool to a soft creamy caramel.  If you leave it in for too  long, and the glaze goes dark brown, the caramel will cool and harden. I figured it would be easiest to tell when the correct colour was reached if I baked my sticky buns in a glass pan.  I used a 8 x 12  inch glass pyrex dish.

The dough took about 2 hours to double in size.

Then I rolled it out to an 18 x 9 inch rectangle.  It was a beautiful, supple dough to work with.  After rolling I sprinkled it liberally with cinnamon sugar.

I decided to add toasted chopped pecans and raisins inside my buns.

While this made rolling and cutting the dough a bit more difficult, it was worth it.

Cutting was a bit messy.  Pecans and raisins spilled out everywhere, but I just stuffed them back in.  I wished I had read Tammy’s blog before I did the cutting.  She reminded me of a trick I had forgotten, to use thread or dental floss (not mint!) to make beautiful slices.

I placed 6 of the buns on top of the caramel glaze in the 8 x 12 pyrex pan.  The other six went into a glass dish lined with parchment paper.  They were covered with plastic wrap and then put into the fridge for an overnight rest.

Sticky Buns ready for proofing in the fridge.

Cinnamon buns ready for proofing in the fridge.

Cinnamon buns ready for the oven.

 The cinnamon buns were ready in about 30 minutes and the sticky buns took about 5 minutes longer.  The sticky buns are baked on the bottom shelf of the oven so that the heat can caramelize the glaze.  Cinnamon buns are left to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then covered with a white fondant glaze (icing sugar, milk and vanilla extract).  Then they are taken out of the pan and left to cool for another 20 minutes.  My husband is convinced I am torturing him.

Glazing the cinnamon buns.

I have to confess, this is a photo of the second time I made the cinnamon buns (yesterday).  The book suggested you just streak the buns with the glaze.  The first time I used a fork, but this time I put the glaze into a disposable piping bag and artfully decorated them.

The sticky buns are cooled in the pan for 5 minutes and then you flip them over onto a serving platter and the bottom caramel glaze becomes the top.  Any excess caramel in the pan is poured onto the buns or eaten by hungry on-lookers!!  20 more minutes of cooling.

Finally it’s time to eat.  Here is angry impatient husband biting into cinnamon bun.

Here is angry impatient husband biting into sticky bun.

These were unbelievably good.  This recipe alone is worth the price of this cookbook.  My favourite were the sticky buns.  I am a lover of all things caramel but these are in a league of their own.  Biting into one, you get the chewy caramel crust and then inside is all pillowy soft cinnamon goodness. Apparently I actually moaned when I took my first bite.  

P.S.  Husband is no longer angry.  Especially since I made them a second time yesterday.