english muffins in the house

english muffins are one of my favorite things to toast; the crispy texture of one that is almost burned...since i am enjoying some time off from the cafe this week, i decided to try my hand at baking a batch.  i saw a post on the blog stetted and knew i had to do it-immediately!  the only thing, the recipe posted included egg, milk and butter.  while i may enjoy all of those ingredients without issue, i just did not want to use all of them in this recipe.  down into the dungeon i went (what i currently call the remains of my family room downstairs due to the flood damage) and withdrew my well used copy of how to bake by nick malgieri from the pile.

with minor substitutions, i made a batch of dough using some atta flour.  we have an indo-pak-bangla market close by called apna bazaar and they have all kinds of interesting flours.  i picked up a bag of this flour when i was looking for durum flour.  if you have indian markets near you, i suggest going there for flour.  they are often much cheaper than the fancy shops and markets.  this 5.5 pound bag cost me less than $4.00.

 the flour is a creamy color and has tiny flecks of bran in it

 the cast iron skillet climbed out of the bin for today's adventure.

 a little dark on the first attempt-gotta love cooking on an electric stove...

the second batch into the skillet came out looking perfect on the outside but not so nook and crannyish on the inside.  they tasted very much like the english muffins from the store with the second batch to be baked having a slightly stronger flavor.  my guess it is the additional rising time which helped develop the flavor.  the substitution of atta flour for about 1/3 of the bread flour gave it additional flavor and color too.   the recipe is a work in progress so i am not going to post it yet but if you are interested in trying a batch, follow the recipe posted on stetted, the link is above.