English Muffins with Ghee

Jana's Karen's Model Bakery English Muffins, Take 2

My parents met Stefan for the first time when they came down the day before my bilateral mastectomy. We went to Jon & Vinny's, had some wine and pizza, and went home for a little socializing. My mom's a great conversationalist - strike that. I was on the phone with my mom when I wrote that, and she demanded accuracy and accountability in my blogging. She wanted me to say that she's actually horrible at talking to people because she has nothing to say when she's not interested in the topic and everything to say when she is interested. It's true that I've spent many, many 30 minute drives on my way to work being lectured on picking-buying-jamming-canning-preserving-fermenting-dehydrating. It's also true that I don't really need to say anything while this is happening. But that doesn't make her horrible at conversation, that just makes her my very smart and very intense mom. (Mom, I love you and think you're amazing all the time no matter what.) 

Anyway. As soon as we were back to my house my mom told Stefan about her homemade chocolate cupcakes that beat all other chocolate cupcakes ever, her homemade granola that actually does beat all other granola ever, her beautiful homemade bags, and her "blue ribbon jam." My mom does make some damn good jam. The only thing is, her jam has never been judged. She makes a ton of jam, she teaches a ton of classes on jam, but she has never entered her jam in a competition. I naturally yelled her name ("Mom. Mom!") and asked what she was even saying, and she responded that her jam was good enough to be blue ribbon jam and she knew that if she ever did enter it, it would win. 

I love my mom.

My first batch of English muffins with my mom's blue ribbon jam.

My mom's blue ribbon jam brings me to Karen's Model Bakery English muffins, since the only thing you should eat on English muffins is my mom's jam. Karen's English muffins are incredible and were the subject of our first lesson together. The recipe will follow, but first, a few pointers:

1. You should try to be as delicate as possible when placing the muffin dough into the ghee, but if you get scared of hot, spluttering butter and accidentally toss the ball in, that's okay, too. The people eating your muffins know nothing!

I was brave with the left muffin. I was scared with the right muffin. 

2. It's hard to turn the muffins over in the ghee to cook the second side without deflating the dough or worse, ending up with a crooked muffin. I like to use my flat metal spatula to begin the flip of the muffin, and a silicon spatula to help guide it gently over. Crooked muffins should be given to people who love you the most and will judge you the least. 

A crooked muffin. 

3. The second time I made these muffins, the silicon lid popped off as the dough fermented in the fridge. I wasn't in the fridge when this happened and so didn't see the problem until the 12 hours had passed. It was fine. Just scrape any hardened dough off the top and proceed as normal. I had three fewer muffins than usual and one baby muffin that I ate alone in the dark in the middle of the night.

INGREDIENTS

The Biga

75 grams bread flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
60 grams water

The Dough

3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon olive oil
315 grams water (if using whole wheat, increase to 362 grams)
510 grams all purpose flour (or if making whole wheat, 300 grams whole wheat plus 135 all purpose flour plus 75 grams all purpose flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
cornmeal

The Ghee

3/4 cup good quality unsalted butter

DIRECTIONS

The Biga

At least 1 day before cooking muffins, combine flour, water, and yeast in small container with lid. The dough will be sticky. Refrigerate between 12-24 hours. Biga will rise slightly.

A biga.

The Ghee

Option 1 (Karen's method):
Melt butter over medium heat until it begins to bubble and get frothy, about 30-45 seconds. Remove from heat, allow to cool 5 minutes. Carefully skim foam off top of butter and discard. Place butter in refrigerator until use. 

Option 2 (My method):
Heat unsalted butter in heavy-duty saucepan over very low heat until melted. Let simmer gently until the foam rises to the top of the melted butter. Once butter stops spluttering, and no more foam is rising to the surface, remove from heat and skim off the foam with a spoon. Line a mesh strainer with a few layers of cheesecloth and set strainer over heatproof container. Carefully pour warm butter through the cheesecloth-lined strainer into the container, leaving behind any solids from the bottom of the pan.

Option 3 (My other method): 
Buy prepared ghee for $8 at your local Indian market. 

The Dough 

Transfer biga, water, 3/4 teaspoon yeast and oil to bowl of Kitchen Aid mixer. Mix on low for 1-2 minutes to break up biga. 

Add 435 grams all purpose flour (or 300 grams white whole wheat plus 135 grams all purpose flour) in batches to prevent flour from flying out. Mix 1-2 minutes to make a soft and sticky dough that cleans the sides of the bowl. Clean off paddle, cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

Add remaining 75 grams all purpose flour along with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Knead in mixer on setting 4 for about 8 minutes if using all purpose flour, or 16 minutes if using whole wheat flour, until dough is smooth and elastic. Remove paddle attachment and clean off any dough sticking to it.

Lightly sprinkle clean, flat surface with flour, and turn out dough onto it. Gently flatten dough into rectangle, then stretch and pull corners into the middle to form a ball. Turn over and create tension in the ball to close the seams. 

Transfer dough to large (4 quart) airtight container. Let proof for 2 hours until dough doubles in volume and air bubbles are visible, or refrigerate for 8-12 hours. If refrigerating dough, let stand at room temperature 1-2 hours before proceeding to next step. (For best results, use the refrigeration option. Just do it.) 

Lightly flour work surface and turn out dough onto it. Gently shape dough into rectangle and cut into thirds using pastry scraper. Then cut each third into 77 gram pieces, using scale to get precise weight. As you do this step, keep dough covered with plastic wrap to prevent drying. 

There is no such thing as weighing 77 grams perfectly each time.
Just place extra bits of dough onto your first effort, like so.

Gently shape each 77 gram piece of dough into a ball by stretching the outer edge into the middle, bit by bit until all edges have been stretched and tucked. Turn ball over and create tension. Roll each ball in cornmeal and place onto baking sheet seam side down. Lightly spray plastic wrap with cooking spray and place loosely over balls. Let rise 1-2 hours depending on temperature in room, until balls have doubled in size and slowly spring back when pressed lightly with pointer finger. 
 

This is a pre-rise ball. 

Weigh these suckers and end up with homogenous beauty. 

Preheat oven to 400. Heat large cast iron pan over medium heat and add enough ghee to fill pan about 1/8 inch. Carefully use thin metal spatula and fingers to transfer 2-4 balls into the ghee (cooking in batches), cooking 3 minutes per side. Take care to ensure even browning. Some cornmeal will come off the balls as they cook; if cornmeal begins to burn or get smokey, throw out old ghee and cook remaining balls in fresh ghee. 

After both sides have been cooked in ghee, immediately transfer to baking sheet and bake in oven for 3 minutes. Remove and transfer muffins to wire rack to cool. Do not cut into or disturb muffins for at least 20 minutes. 

These muffins were cooked for 4 minutes per side. 4 minutes is too many. Do 3.