Milestones/-/ Coconut English muffins

Guess what happen to me yesterday!

I went into surgery to remove my wisdom teeth. Now I know that may not be exciting to some but to me this was my first time ever going under general anaesthetic. In my whole life I have never been one of those kids who got hurt lot or took risk when playing out in garden. This means never gotten the chance to experience the arm sling, wheel chair or leg brace. Somehow this have left a part of normal childhood mile stones unfulfilled and I felt left out.



So yes after more than 24 hours of sleeping, I have come back to blog for you guys. Yes I love you, my followers, that much. If I could put a hugging GIF on my blog I would but I lack those tech blogging skills so maybe you can feel my gratitude though my actions. I might look like the fourth member of Alvin and chipmunks and have the mumbling voice of jabba the hut; but come hell or high water I can still blog! *sorry for the over reaction, I am just filled with energy right now*



Right now all I can say is I am glad the food blogging sphere had Popsicle week and ice cream week before I had this done. I am living off my dairy pops, ice cream, soda pop and the odd veggie/tofu soup. Not much you can eat while your face has four lots of stitches in it. On a positive note, I no longer have to be shy about my love to eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner anymore. Let’s say the 4 litre tubs are not going to last long in my house hold.



Even though I can have all these sweet foods there is one thing I am missing. One day in without bread, hell man I am missing it. I miss toast, sandwiches, cheese toasties and all the other things bread is a wonderful part of.

Could I be the first case of bread addiction? For you guys who have gone under surgery like me, what food did you miss the most?

Anyway for those of you who can eat bread, I am tell you to make your own English muffins. No they are not the same as those one you get in supermarket or the ones at McDonalds. They are so much better times 100.




I do not buy English muffins in Australia. There are two reasons behind this. 

One, most of them are miserably dry and have the pronounce flavour of raw flour.

Two, they have the scary ability to last longer than normal loaf of bread. I lost an English muffin pack in my car once and found it two weeks later in the same condition as I bought them. SCARY…..



So you can feel my excitement when Food52 does one with Christina Tosi. Of course I had to try them but I wanted to make them bit different. I love coconut in baked foods, so my adaption features coconut milk and coconut oil in place of butter milk and butter. I guess this also makes it vegan too but I was not aiming for that in first place.



Yes I did burn them a little bit (me and my absent mindedness) but they still tasted great! A little fig jam and butter is enough to sustain me most mornings. The hint of coconut in the muffin covers for that floury taste that can come with pan baked breads like this. They also come out very white and pale but do not be alarmed they are cooked. Wonderfully soft English muffins which everyone can share over a late breakfast or brunch; really what more can you ask from a meal?



Coconut English muffins

Adapted from food52

Makes about 25 ish muffins



7g yeast

56g water, warm

170g coconut milk, warm

500g bread flour

30g sugar

5g salt

70g coconut oil, at room temp or slightly above.

Spray oil

Cornmeal

Serving; Fig jam, butter, vegan sub etc..


Combined yeast, coconut milk and water in a large bowl and allow to bubble up. This should take 10 minutes.

Add flour, salt and sugar in the bowl. With your hands mix the dough until it no longer sticks to the sides but it will be very wet. It is ok! Just work with it. The best dough always is on the wet side.

Turn your dough out onto well floured surface. Now slowly knead in your coconut oil until it completely combined. Continue to knead until becomes a sloppy but no longer sticky dough ball. You may think it is too wet but you need it for English muffins. This took me about 15 minutes.

Spray an another clean bowl with oil and place your dough in it, cover and prove for 1 hour in fridge.

Cover two baking trays with corn meal, be generous here.

Take your dough from the fridge. Cover your work surface with flour then tip this dough onto it. Knead a few time to bring it together then work it into a log shape.

Divide your dough into 50 gram balls. Lightly roll into a round-ish shape and push lightly into the corn meal dust on the trays. Dust both sides with corn meal.

Leave to prove for 30 minutes. Turn on your oven to 150C.

Heat your skillet to medium low and toast a small handful of corn meal in the pan.

Transfer a proved muffin to the skillet, dust off as much corn meal as your can. Cook on the skillet for 5 minutes then turn. Continue to cook for a further 4 minutes on the other side. They should have a nice brown on both sides.

Transfer them to the baking sheet and place them in your oven for 10 minutes to dry out and bake more. Remove from oven and allow to cool on trays before serving.