There was a long-standing joke in my family about boroughs. My dad was born in Brooklyn and my mother came from Queens. "We've got the Brooklyn Dodgers," said my dad. I'm not quite sure what Queens has. My mother has lived most of her life in New Jersey, and though my father has lived in several cities and traveled all over the world, his heart and accent is from Brooklyn.
Now, he lives in Connecticut, just outside of Hartford and when I come to visit, his questions remain the same. "What can I make you for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks in between? Can I buy anything special to put in the fridge? I've got peanut butter. What can I have waiting for you when you get here?"
We are a family of eaters, marking every occasion with food. When I lived with my dad, we'd often have late night chats over a giant pot of coffee and warmed something in the oven. Chicken. Spare ribs. Fried rice. Dim sum. Whatever happened to be in the freezer, marked only by crinkled tin foil or see-through Tupperware taken from Chinese food take-out. Whatever it was, it always tasted gourmet.
On my last visit, he made me his famous English muffins. But they tasted better than the store-bought kind my mother used to buy, so calling it by that name seems unfitting. I'd eat them early in the morning, just after waking up and they were hand-made by my dad. Hence, Early Morning Brooklyn Muffins.
Ingredients:
1 cup of water
½ cup scalded milk
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 package of active dry yeast
4 cups of sifted all-purpose flour
3 tbsp softened butter
Combine the first four ingredients into a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, dissolve the yeast in 2 tablespoons of warm water for three to five minutes. Combine the two mixtures.
Beat two cups of flour gradually into the combined mixture. Cover the bowl with a cloth and let the dough rise in a warm place (about 85 degrees F) for about 1-1 ½ hours, or until it collapses back into the bowl. Beat in three tablespoons of softened butter. Beat or knead in the remaining flour.
Grease the inside of the muffin rings and fill halfway with the batter. If you do not have muffin rings, small tuna cans with tops and bottoms removed also work well. Rinse extremely well. You do not want Early in the Morning Brooklyn Muffins infused with the taste or smell of tuna! Let them stand in a lightly greased cookie sheet until the dough has doubled in bulk.
Place the cookie sheet with the muffins in an oven preheated to 425 degrees. Cook until golden brown.
Cool slightly on a cake rack and remove the muffin rings.
Yields: 8 muffins
by Aimee Herman