and now for the recipe

The English version of a muffin is baked on a griddle. It is served warm or cooled, split and toasted for afternoon tea, accompanied with lots of butter and marmalade.

English Muffins

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/2 C. warm milk
1/2 C. warm water
2 to 2 1/2 C. flour
2 T. sugar
2 T. Farina
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. t. soda
1 T. oil
Cornmeal

In small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm milk and water (105 to 115 degrees F). Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup, level off. In large bowl, combine 1 C. flour, sugar, farina, salt and soda; blend well. Add yeast mixture and oil; blend at low speed until moistened. Beat 3 minutes at medium speed. Stir in an addition 1 to 1 1/2 C. flour until dough pulls cleanly away from sides of bowl.

On floured surface, knead until smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl; cover loosely with plastic wrap and cloth towel. Let rise in warm place (80 to 85 degrees F) until light and doubled in size, about 35-45 minutes.

Punch down dough several times to remove all air bubbles. On lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut with floured 3-inch cutter (An empty 6 1/2-oz. tuna can with both ends removed, can be substituted for 3-inch round cutter.) Place on cookie sheet sprinkled with corn meal; turn once to coat both sides. Cover, let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about 20-35 minutes.

Heat griddle or electric skillet to 325 degrees F. Bake muffins on griddle about 5-8 minutes on each side or until deep golden brown. 10 muffins.

(I found that my skillet only needed to be at 300 degrees. I kept peeking at the muffins to see how brown they were getting, and never let them cook the 5-8 minutes before turning, but perhaps only 3-4 minutes per side. I also must have gotten half my dough thinner than the other half, as some of the muffins were thinner, and I ended up with 13 muffins. I will know better next time.)

russian tea cakes

in our family, we always made tons of different kinds of christmas cookies. these were the ones that went fastest and had to be made repeatedly:

russian tea cakes

1 C butter
1/2 C powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2-1/4 C flour
3/4 C pecans or walnuts, finely ground (preferably in one of those lovely nut grinders that attaches to the top of a jar)

stir it together. roll them into balls, smash with a fork so it makes a criss-cross pattern. bake for 8-10 minutes in a 400F oven. roll the baked cookies in powdered sugar.

eat. repeat.

more seasonal cooking

because it's that time of year when the rhubarb pokes its ruby stalks out of the ground and begs to be made into something scrumptious...


Mom's Best Rhubarb Coffee Cake

Cream together:
2 C. brown sugar
½ C. butter
2 eggs
1 C. buttermilk
1 t. vanilla

Mix in:
1 t. soda
¼ t. salt
2 C. flour
3 C. rhubarb

Top with:
½ C. sugar
1 t. cinnamon

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes in a 9x13 pan.

i baked mine in a round pan, as you can see. it made enough for a small loaf for the neighbors who serve as sabin's surrogate grandparents as well. i used a rich dark brown muscovado sugar rather than ordinary brown sugar. it has an almost molasses-like flavor and made it rich and delicious. we poured cream over it and sprinkled a bit more of the crystals of organic raw sugar over it to give it a little extra sweetness and crunch. heavenly.

recipe for a spring lunch

i posted this over on just know where you are, but i thought i'd post it here as well in light of my suggestion that we create a family cookbook. leading by example and such...

i hereby present a delicious spring lunch. should be eaten outdoors if at all possible. preferably from the same big bowl with just a fork for all those who partake. there are a host of inspirations here--japanese, spanish, nordic, "julish."

salad

1 small kohlrabi, diced
1 small bunch of asparagus, cut into bite-sized pieces and put in boiling water for 3-4 minutes, then cooled down immediately with cold water to keep the brilliant spring green
1 chorizo sausage, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 handful herbs (i used that wonderful ramsløg stuff--wild garlic leaves picked in the forest) but a handful of parsley or even cilantro would be good
1 package of cherry (or small plum) tomatoes, cut into bite size
1 small package macadamia nuts
handful of manchego (or other hard) cheese, diced (again with the bite-sized pieces

toss it all together in a bowl

dressing

1 large spoonful of red miso
1 teaspoon honey
good glug of olive oil
a few drops of sesame oil (you don't need much
juice of ½ a lemon

whisk it together, taste. if it needs something, a bit of rice vinegar and/or soy sauce should do the trick

pour it over the salad. serve in the sun with a loaf of good bread slathered in butter and sprinkled with flaky salt. drink white wine with it.