A week or so ago, I got a bee in my bonnet about our excessive dependency on plastic and what I could do to minimize the amount that I use, especially the single-use variety. I started looking at lists of ways to make it happen and was pleased to see that I was already doing a lot of the things. But, like with most things, there is always room for improvement.
Making your own bread was one of the items on the list, beacuse what does bread get packaged in? That’s right, plastic! But delightfully you can find all of the ingredients for bread in non-plastic packaging. Flour comes in paper bags, yeast can be purchased in the glass jars, salt from cardboard boxes, and water filtered right from your tap.
I already bake bread weekly, but there is one kind of bread that we regularly buy still and that’s English Muffins. So of course, this week’s bake was a clear choice and something I have long wanted to try. I went to my aspirational “Breadmaking” Pinterest Board to see what recipes I had there and decided to go with Baked by an Introvert’s English Muffin recipe.
I was slightly nervous, as this bake would be my first attempt at an Enriched dough (that’s just a dough that has more than the 4 basic ingredients of breadmaking). I’ve watched enough Great British Baking Show to know that all the baker’s seem to be extra anxious about enriched doughs since all those extra ingredients can inhibit the yeast and lead to trouble. But I forged ahead and tried not to let that negative thinking get the best of me.
And I’m so glad I wasn’t scared off by my nerves about enriched dough because this was quite possibly the most fun I’ve ever had baking bread. English muffins, among other differences to my typical methods, involved the use of a griddle to get those nice brown tops and bottoms. You get to be an active part of transforming a disc of dough into a proper English Muffin. I may have been giddy during that phase and exclaimed, “They look like actual english muffins!!” as I made the first flip of the dough.
They filled the whole house with the most glorious smell and, after a torturous wait as they cooled, the finished product tasted just as good as it looked. I love when that happens!
Yes, I do believe that English Muffins will be another thing I can check off the never buying again list. And a dozen or so fewer plastic bags that I will be sending out into the world each year. It’s a small step, but with enough home bakers in the world just imagine the impact we could make!
Bree Bakes Bread and Other Stuff Too 