English muffins

I have always been fascinated by the idea of baking something on a griddle (over an open fire, ideally) but for some reason, it never occurred to me, until last week, that is, that I could use my frying pan instead of a griddle. Yes, that's right, the frying pan. Last thursday, when the Boyfriend was out on a guys' night, I tried all kinds of things (I like to do that when he's not in as he finds the kitchen-marathons I sometimes engange in quite unsettling) and I made these English Muffins. It was a blast, really easy and I had some fun baking them on the stove (the Boyfriend was back by then and thought I was out of my mind). I think they could probably be baked in the oven with turning them over after half the baking time in order to brown on both sides but then you don't have the griddle experience and you wouldn't want to miss that, would you? I had them split and toasted, smothered with butter and my mother's homemade jam for breakfast on friday morning - a really great way of starting the day.

English Muffins (makes 6)
Recipe from Delia Online

• 225g strong plain flour
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 110ml milk
• 25 ml water
• 0.5 teaspoon sugar
• 1 level teaspoon dried yeast
• a trace of butter for the pan

Put the milk and water in a small saucepan and heat until "hand hot". Pour into a jug, add the sugar and yeast, mix with a fork and leave for about ten minutes. Meanwhile sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl, making a well in the centre, then pour in the frothy yeast mixture and mix it to a soft dough. Transfer the dough to a flat surface and knead it for about ten minutes. It should be very smooth and elastic. Leave it to rise in a warm place four about 45 minutes. Lightly flour the work surface. Roll out the dough to about 1cm thickness. Cut out rounds (diameter about 7.5 cm) with a cutter. Repeat until all the dough is used up. Leave to rise again for another 25 minutes. Very lightly grease a heavy-based frying pan with butter (the original recipe uses lard; in a good non-stick pan it might actually even work without greasing) then add some muffins and bake them for about seven minutes on each side, over a very low heat.

It seems I'm not the only one using her frying pan for baked goods. Check out delicious days for another blogger's countings about English Muffins.