Spanglish Muffins

Like the title? I know you do. I can sense you smiling as you are saying it. Now I'm sensing you don't quite like where this is headed. DON'T LEAVE! You just got here! I promise it's gets better from here. Just give me a second and this will all make sense. And I'm gonna try not to use the word "sense" anymore, ok?

What you see above are english muffins....with a little something extra. That something extra is Masa. That's right, I added the stuff to make tortillas to this muffin mix. What in the hell would posses me to do this? Drugs? Nope. A bet? Nope. Drugs???? I said NO GODDAMMIT! Let's get this out of the way...

Somehow I got it in my head that I wanted to attempt a yeast based bread that had masa in it. I had never seen anything like it. I figured it at worst, it would be an "Epic Fail"(I am not a fan of that phrase.). I searched around the net and found a few recipes that would make a loaf-type bread. Then I started thinking about incorporating the masa into something else. I came upon a recipe for english muffins and felt it would be the perfect test dummy to try this out on. Most recipes for english muffins are pretty safe and there's almost no baking involved. Sounds logical, right?

But I didn't go about this as I usually do. I made them once, and got a fairly warm reception to it from the people that tried it. Then, I made it again. And again. AND AGAIN!.Normally, for the blog, it's one and done. This was the first time that I made something more than once before posting it. I didn't intend it like that, but that's how it worked out.

I kept tweeking the recipe and the way I rolled out dough until I got it just the way I wanted it. I'll explain a little more when the time comes. For now, I'll just give you the ratio of flours to masa.

1 part Masa
1 part Bread Flour
2 parts All Purpose Flour

That magic ratio is what got me to my perfection. I'll post a link at the bottom to the page I went to for the recipe.

For now, let's make some muffins!

You are gonna start by blooming your yeast with the sugar and half of your luke warm milk. Once the yeast has done it's thing, add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix in the rest of the milk. It should take about 5 minutes to mix in a kitchen aid and 10 minutes by hand. Round out the dough and let rise to double the size in a bowl lubed up with non-stick spray.

Punch the dough down to release the gasses and get the dough on the bench. I like my breads being close to even in size, so I scaled out the dough. After splitting the dough in two, I portioned out each muffin to about 4 1/4 ounces. Now, that makes a very healthy size muffin. If you want something closer to what you might be used to, go about 3 to 3 1/3 ounces per dough ball.

I rolled out my dough with a rolling pin. Most recipes will tell you just round out the dough to a ball and it will just flatten out on the griddle. I tried that and it didn't work so well for me.

Once you get them to shape, place them on a tray with cornmeal sprinkled on it. Once down, sprinkle the tops with a little bit of cornmeal as well.

Once I took that pic, I realized I forgot the cornmeal. I quickly took them off and dusted the tray. :)

Cover the rounded/rolled dough with either a towel or plastic wrap and let it rise to about 1 1/2 times the original size.

After it's risen, heat a griddle or saute pan to medium to medium-low heat and set your oven to 350F. Gently pick up the dough and place on whatever it is you are gonna cook these things on. You do NOT need any oil on the cooking surface. This is one of the few times lube is not necessary.

When I set them in the pan, the bottom side that was on the tray was the first side that hit the pan. The next batch, I placed the the top side from the tray onto the heat first. Check out the difference in color.

Notice how the bottom pic had very few spots that didn't hit the pan? It's the little things like this which make cooking so complex.

It should take about 4-5 minutes each side on the stove top. Once done, throw them in the oven and bake for 8 more minutes. This will ensure that center is fully done.

Let cool for about 30 minutes before digging in. When you do dive in, you will be tempted to grab a knife to split this thing in half. DON'T DO IT!!! Instead, use a fork and poke holes all along the side. By the time you work your way around, it will split and you will get all those little nooks and crannies.

OK, I know it doesn't look like a certain name brand muffin, but it tastes a hell of a lot better.
I like mine with just a little butter and honey. For the sake of the blog, I put jelly on one half.

When I first started making these, I really didn't know what this thing might taste like. The first attempt was 1/2 masa. The taste was "Intriguing". At least, that's what a coworker told me. And he was right. The taste of the corn and natural sweetness from it came in as a secondary taste. It really took a few seconds for it to hit you. It was a nice change from all the flavorless english muffins I previously had. But, it was very dense. And the dough itself was very tough to work with. The lack of gluten made the dough crumbly.

This ratio pretty much fixed all the problems and kept that sweetness from the masa. If you've ever had an english muffin and thought these things have no flavor, try this out. It may just become your new favorite breakfast item.

I said I was gonna give a link to the site, so here it is.

ENGLISH MUFFINS BABY!!!

Even the person on that site went nuts for these things. And that's WITHOUT the masa! Give it a try, you might just surprise yourself.

I'm out!

J. Miller