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Julia's Mumpets

Linda Michaluk <tmichaluk@cyberstore.ca>
Mon, 02 Jun 97 17:12:59 -0500
v097.n039.8
-- [ From: Linda Michaluk * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --

Someone asked for the Julia Child Crumpet like recipe.  Here, in best chatty
Julia style, it is.  Cheers
Linda
Julie Child's Mumpets

1 T dry active yeast dissolved in ¼ cup tepid water
2 T instant mashed potatoes softened in ½ cup boiling water (or ¼ cup grated
raw potato simmered until tender in 1 cup water)
½ cup cold water (or cold milk if using raw potato) 
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
To be added after first rise:  1 ½ t salt dissolved in 3 T tepid water
 2 to 3 T butter, softened
Heavy griddle or large frying pan, or non-stick electric skillet
muffin or crumpet rings or cat-food or tunafish cans about 3 inches in
diameter with tops and bottoms removed
4 to 5 T ladle or long handled cup

The Dough
While yeast is dissolving, assemble the other ingredients.  Then into the
instant potatoes beat the cold milk, and stir it along with the water and
dissolved yeast into the flour.  (Ot if using raw potato, stir the cold milk
into the potato pan, then stir both in to the flour, adding dissolved yeast
only after mixture has cooled to tepid.)  Beat vigorously for a minute or so
with a wooden spoon to make a smooth loose thick batter, heavier than the
usual pancake batter but not at all like the conventional dough.  Cover with
plastic wrap and let rise, preferably at around 80F until batter has risen
and large bubbles have appeared in the surface (usually about 1 ½ hours - it
must be bubbly, however long it takes).
Stir the batter down, then beat in the salt and water, beating vigorously
for a minute.  Cover and let rise until bubbles again appear in the surface,
about an hour at 80F.  The batter is now ready to become English Muffins.  
(Batter may sit for an hour or more after its second rise, or you may use
one of the delaying tactics suggested at the end of recipe).

Preliminaries
When you are ready to cook the muffins, brush insides of rings fairly
generously with butter; butter surface of griddle and set over moderate heat
.  When just hot enough, so that drops of water begin to dance on it, the
heat is about right.  Scoop your ladle into the batter and dislodge the
batter into a ring with rubber spatula; batter should be about 3/8" thick to
make a raised muffin twice that.  Batter should be heavy, sticky, sluggish,
but not runny having just enough looseness to be spread out into the ring. 
If you think it is too thick, beat in tepid water by driblets.

Cooking the muffins
The muffins are to cook slowly on one side until bubbles, which form near
the bottom of the muffin, pierce through the top surface, and until almost
the entire top changes from a wet ivory to a dryish gray colour; this will
take 6 to 8 minutes or more, depending on the heat.  Regulate heat so that
bottoms of muffins do not colour more than a medium or pale brown.  Now the
muffins are to be turned over for a brief cooking on the other side.  Less
than a minute is usually enough for cooking the second side.  Cool muffins
on rack.

Delaying tactics
Not much can happen to ruin this dough, as long as you have achieved the
necessary bubbles.  You may let it wait at room temp for an hour or more
before baking; or you may even refrigerate it over night.  If it seems to
have lost its bubble, you can bring it back to life by beating in another
cup of flour blended with enough tepid water to make a batter; this will
give the yeast something more to feed on and in an hour or so it will rise
and bubble again as it gobbles its new food.  
You can even turn this batter into a sourdough.  Simply let it sit at room
temp for a day or two until it has soured, then bottle and refrigerate it. 
You can now use it in any sourdough recipe, or you can make sourdough
English muffins;  blend ½ cup of it with 1 cup flour and enough water to
make a batter, add 1 T dissolved yeast, and let it rise; then beat in more
flour and water, or milk, and add salt; let it rise and bubble again; and
cook your muffins.  Replenish the sourdough starter by mixing it with more
flour and water or milk blended into a batter, and let sit at room temp
until it has bubbled up and subsided; refrigerate as before.