English Muffins

Growing up, I am not sure why but my parents only used King Arthur flour. I remember my daddy making waffles (recipe which needs to be posted at some point cause they are great) from scratch and out came the brown and red bag of whole wheat flour. 

When I got married, I realized when I went shopping I automatically gravitated towards certain products, mostly because those were what I grew up with. Rumford baking powder and King Arthur flour are two that stand out. These made their way to my cupboards. At the funeral of my Uncle, I spent the weekend at my cousins house and discovered this cookbook sitting on her shelf and quickly fell in love. I have always wanted to be a baker and always admired the art of forming the dough into a work of yummy art. I soon discovered that there is so much more the flour being sold by King Arthur. 

You can actually get their catalog or just shop it online. They even have a section on their website that just talks about their flours and has videos of how their flour is harvested and much more. Two Christmas' ago, my mother got me a gift card. It took me a long time to decide what to buy. Kept circling things in the catalog going back and forth. Finally I decided on their Yogurt Maker, Baguette Pan and their English Muffin Rings. I have used the first two, but even after I got them I realized my using them was probably not going to happen. They are just so easy to buy.

I recently was searching Pinterest for great breakfast recipes and discovered a freeze ahead breakfast sandwich which I can no longer find. I didn't have any English Muffins so figured why not try to put those rings to use finally!

The recipe was simple to follow and they turned out incredibly deliciously. I did learn a few things like when it says to not over fill...there is a reason to that LOL. I did check with King Arthur first and they graciously said it was ok to post as long as I linked back to them (have no fear...I love to link!) so here is the recipe and my iphone photo. The more I blog though the more I think I need to keep our nice camera more accessible. 

King Arthur English Muffins

The cookbook also gives directions for dry-frying but since I baked those are the only directions I am posting. This recipe starts on page 227 of their All-Purpose Cookbook 

Starter:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (next time I am going to try with White Whole Wheat)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/8 tsp instant yeast

Dough:

• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 TB cornstarch
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 TB sugar or non-diastatic malt powder (I used sugar...one day I will buy this)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 TB butter, melted
• 3/4 cup milk, warm (I used almond milk and they were fabulous)
• cornmeal for sprinkling on pans when you bake

Directions

1. Mix the starter together, til you form a smooth batter. Cover and leave at room temp for at least 4 hrs, or up to 16 hours. The starter is kind of puffy and full of holes when ready to use.
2. In large mixing bowl beat starter and dough ingredients to form a smooth batter. It needs to be beaten for 5 to 8 minutes so I used my kitchenaid, but you can always give those muscles a work out too :). 
3. Cover the bowl and leave in a warm spot until the batter has doubled about 1 hour
4. Lightly grease 10 to 12 English Muffin rings and place on a lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheet. I used my Pampered Chef Stoneware and find it never burns and everything turns out great. Sprinkle a small amount of cornmeal into each ring. This is not needed just makes them look more store like LOL
5. If you don't have the rings, like most people, you can simply drop the batter on the pan and form with your fingers. Big hint: dip fingers in water...won't be as sticky!
6. Stir the dough, then drop a scant 1/4 cup of dough into each ring (don't heap it like I did LOL) Smooth the dough if you want (remember dip your fingers in water first so it doesn't stick all over you) Cover and let rise in warm place for 1 hour or until they have grown at least a third.
7. Preheat oven to 350. If using rings, place a pan on top to keep them flat on both sides. This makes it so they don't grow over the rings as well and can fit in toaster. Don't put a pan on top if you aren't using rings. 
8. Bake for 25 minutes until lightly browned. Cool and enjoy!

Strawberry Lemonade Cookies

Our church is having a meet and greet for the the students at Southwestern Adventist University (SWAU) where my husband started working this year. Every year the church, which is right on campus, holds this event, and church members bring watermelon and cookies to share with them. I decided I wanted to go so I looked through my Pinterest boards for some cookie recipes. I picked out three but only had time to make two of them.

Roo helped me make the first batch -- Strawberry Lemonade cookies! Boo and I had already done the shopping in the morning to get all the ingredients so I had everything set out on the cupboard all ready for Roo's special time with me!

all the ingredients laid out for the cookies

We immediately got busy. Roo loved using the hand mixer. I was going to use my kitchen aid but wanted to teach her about over mixing wanted her to feel like she was doing it not just some machine.

So she mixed it all up and then it was time to make the cookies. I totally love Pampered Chef's (PC) Small Scoop. It was easy enough for her little hands and made perfect scoops each time. We also put them on PC's Large Stoneware Bar Pans. I love stoneware! I have never had anything ever burn on them. They always turn out perfect.

frosting made and ready to decorate!

So after baking them (btw, the recipe made 54 for us) I made the frosting and got out the sprinkles. I frosted each of them and then handed them to the girls to decorate. They had a blast! I did have to rotate evenly through though so that that one kid didn't get more then another and as a side note there were actually 55 cookies but we only decorated 54. One lucky cookie got a trip through my digestive system so that everything was fair. Aren't I the best mother ever ?!?!

I also enjoyed watching the girls decorate. It was a picture into their creative thinking. Loo used the sprinkles  with no real thought pattern except that Mommy had said don't waste them. I let her know she could use more then 10 sprinkles per cookie and then we were all good. Roo made hers to look just like the cookie I had demoed for them. Almost exactly! We really are twinies :). Boo on the other hand was super creative making some half and half with the colors, some just pink, some with the crystal like sprinkles. They sky was her only limit.  I love how even something as simple as this can show me another insight into my children!

This is the finished product along with the Lemon Crinkles that Loo and I made from one of my Pinterest boards as well. Look for that post coming soon. The students of SWAU seemed to really enjoy them and because I made so many of each we also brought a plateful over to our Fire Station.  The visit turned into an impromptu fire station tour and the kids had a blast. We have decided to adopt C company and bring them stuff all year! Without much planning we had a very fun home school day!

So here is the recipe as well as a cute layout I whipped up for the pictures. The kit will be going live in my store soon and I will post the links! Also here is the link to the site I got it from.

Kit Used: Strawberry Lemonade by Truman Studio (releasing soon)