a guest post by Cole Timothy Callahan
*an editors note
Cole Callahan once told me that the best hangover cure was a slice of pizza and a rootbeer before noon. Indeed, the first morning I deliriously followed this advice, and followed Cole into the Italian neighborhood of Boston near his home, I understood something fundamental about my friend and his gastronomical knacks. Cole is like a doctor in and of the kitchen, curiously testing recipes while reading up on the chemical components of baking, or the physical properties of egg whites. He is especially adept at pairing foods and moods. What’s even more impressive is his inability to compromise and settle for a mediocre meal when the exact meal required for, say, a morning off, will take a mere twelve hours more. Curiously, for Cole, food often serves as a salient counter to some previous hours’ vices… Like a true chef… He currently works as a pastry cook for Lucca Back Bay in Boston. Without further ado, enjoy…
xo Pascale
Breakfast of Champions
by Cole Callahan
It has been ages since you have had a proper breakfast, but just now you have a need for something civilized. Luckily, it is the night before the meal in question and you have time, though not much (you got home from work at eleven), but it is time enough. You know you want eggs; you know you want the yolks runny. You have had a drink and your stomach is cavernous, a feeling you know will fill by morning. You fantasize about a bread to soak in some runny egg yolk, filling up the space. Salt to satisfy your palate. In the end you know that what you need isn’t something to bring your belly to helium balloon standards but to meet your requirements of richness and satisfaction. It’s late and, to your dismay, time runs short. Your favorite bread book insists that all French bread recipes require a preferment. Determined, you go through the book again, and find a recipe you want and realize that you’ve desired it all along: English Muffins. What could be better than a breakfast staple from childhood but made from scratch? Looking over the recipe you agree to delay sleep, but the end justifies the means. You open the refrigerator:
Take out 1 Tbsp. of Butter to reach room temperature
With the butter coming to temperature, your mind moves to tomorrows breakfast. In a bowl you mix:
10 oz. (2 ¼ Cups) Bread Flour
½ Tbsp. Sugar
¾ Tsp. Salt
1 ¼ Tsp. Instant Yeast
1 Tbsp Butter (Room Temp.)
Mix until all ingredients are well acquainted.
Pour a glass of wine, light a cigarette, break out your St. John Ashtray and lament the ban of smoking in seemingly intelligent countries.
Mix the ingredients with the paddle attachment, when homogenized add:
6 oz. Milk or Buttermilk
After two minutes the dough should form a ball, if the dough shows a resilience to these instructions do the following:
Add more flour if a ball has not formed
Add more milk/buttermilk if dough is too stiff.
In either case, give about one minute to make sure any ingredients added have fully incorporated.
Now is time to exchange paddle for dough hook, or if mixing by hand, time to put the dough on a lightly floured surface. Knead for eight minutes by mixer or ten minutes by hand. The dough should be tacky and pliable. If you and your dough agree upon this description, transfer to an oiled bowl, roll dough ball to coat and cover with plastic wrap. The dough needs 60-90 minutes to recoup before round two; in other words, it needs to double in size.
Break the dough down to 3 oz. portions and shape them into boules. If not familiar with this technique it is a simple process. Put the portioned dough on a very lightly floured surface, place your hand on top of the dough with your fingers arranged like a cage and move your hand in a circular direction until you have a little round ball with decent surface tension. This process can be used with any dough to form dinner rolls. Again, let the dough double in size.
Now it is time to drink more wine and have another cigarette knowing that the end is near. Bring your oven to 350 degrees while enjoying your vices. Once the oven has preheated get a pan good and hot; add vegetable oil, wait a few seconds and add the boules. Don’t get hasty and add them all at once, you need at least and inch between them to get a good sear. Once golden brown, flip your bread and color the other side. You should now have what resembles an English Muffin in your pan. Grab a spatula and move the English muffins to a sheet tray lined with parchment in your oven. Add more boules to the pan but keep in mind that it takes 8 minutes to cook your product through.
Once cooked, put your muffins on a rack to cool. It’s late and you want to sleep and bring their demise about quicker but patience is important when making bread. Give them a half hour on the cooling rack. Wrap them in plastic and go to bed knowing that you were better off taking the time to make English muffins from scratch instead of buying them from the store.
When you wake up, cook the eggs (sunny side up is preferable, and if so, don’t salt the yolk until the eggs are on your plate). Get a cast iron pan good and hot and add some butter. Put the split English muffins face down in the pan and cook until golden brown. Finally you can appreciate your labor.
