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Health Food Muffins
1 cup warm wheat mush 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon butter 1/4 yeast cake 1/4 cup lukewarm water 2 1/4 cups flour Mix first four ingredients, add yeast cake dissolved in lukewarm water, and flour; then knead. Cover, and let rise over night. In the morning cut down, fill buttered gem pans two-thirds full, again let rise and bake in a moderate oven. This mixture, when baked in a loaf, makes a delicious bread.
A yeast-raised breakfast muffin built on leftover cooked wheat cereal, mixed the night before and baked in the morning. Two details govern the outcome: the temperature of the mush when the yeast goes in, and the very small quantity of yeast, which is what makes an overnight rise work rather than overshoot.
- Wheat mushThis is cooked cracked-wheat or whole-wheat breakfast porridge, the kind simmered in a double boiler and served with cream. Any thick cooked wheat cereal works; cook it a little stiffer than you would for eating, and let it cool to lukewarm before it meets the yeast. Much above 110F and the yeast starts to suffer; hotter still and it dies.
- A quarter yeast cakeIf the small compressed cake (about 0.6 oz) is meant, a quarter of one is a very small amount — on the order of 1/2 teaspoon of active dry or something under 1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast. Resist the urge to increase it; the point is a slow cool rise overnight.
- Overnight riseCover and leave in a cool room, not a warm one. A modern kitchen at 70F or above will run this dough well past its peak by morning; the refrigerator, or a genuinely cool pantry, gives a better result.
- Cut downThis means deflate the risen dough and fold it back on itself, not cut it into pieces. Do it in the bowl, then portion.
- Gem pansStandard muffin tins. Two-thirds full gives about twelve muffins from this quantity; the second rise should take 30 to 45 minutes at room temperature, until the dough domes just level with the rim.
- Moderate oven350F to 375F, 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are well browned and a muffin sounds hollow when tapped out of the tin.
- As a loafBaked in a single loaf pan the same dough needs 375F and about 35 to 40 minutes, to an internal temperature of 195F to 200F.
- ConsistencyCooked cereal varies enormously in water content, so the 2 1/4 cups of flour is a starting point. Aim for a soft kneadable dough that is slightly tacky rather than stiff.