Okay.
We’re talking English Muffins.
For a good reason though!
I’ve always used shortening (Crisco) in my English Muffins, but I know
that some people are super opposed to the stuff. And I recently had someone ask me about possible
substitutions. My gut told me that
butter (or another fat) would probably work, but I really didn’t know.
As luck would have it, Hubs had just finished off the last of
the English Muffins and I had half a quart of buttermilk hanging out in the
fridge. It was destiny.
So (inspired by the science-y nature of The Food Lab), I went
into experiment mode. I made three
identical batches of English Muffins (using half whole wheat flour), changing
the fat in each batch. The control used
Crisco, the next batch was butter, and bacon drippings in the third (I always
have bacon drippings around and they’re my favorite fat to use when making
bread or buns).
So how did they stack up (pun intended)?
They are pretty much identical! The bacon batch seemed to spread slightly
more than the other two (it could have been imprecise measuring on my part or
the fact that it was hot in my house, so the drippings were a bit runnier than
the other fats). Taste and texture-wise,
however, they were identical.
I had my entire family do the tasting. The boys couldn’t tell the difference between
any of them. If Hubs and I really concentrated we could just barely
discern a bit of buttery-ness from the butter English Muffins and smokiness in
the bacon muffins when we knew which one we were eating. However, once they were all mixed up in a bag
for storage, there no difference at all.
So there you have it!
Use whatever solid fat you have on hand when making English
Muffins! I would imagine that even lard
or duck fat would yield desirable results!
What’s your favorite fat to bake with?
Looking for the recipes? Look no further! Click the pictures below:
Large Batch English Muffins |
Classic English Muffins |
Thanks for the info Amy.
ReplyDeletehuh-that's so crazy that they're pretty much the same no matter what fat you use!!! Good to know!
ReplyDelete