When I was first married, we frequented a restaurant with my in-laws that always served a plate of delicious Boston brown bread in place of rolls. I came to love that bread and every time we went there, I looked forward to a slice (or two) with a slather of cream cheese on it. It was almost like having dessert before dinner! I made it once, years ago, in a can and it had to steam for a couple hours....very tasty, but I never made it again.
While sorting recently through my files, I noticed I had saved a muffin version of this bread, made by Luisa from The Wednesday Chef....and she used Marion Cunningham's recipe. I looked it up in The Breakfast Book and there it was. Don't know how I missed it, you know how much I love that book! Lightly sweetened with a mix of flours, these are unusual and delightful muffins. The molasses lends a nice deep flavor, the cornmeal a very slight crunch and those golden raisins give you a bite of sweetness. We ate them right out of the oven with butter and they sure brought back some fond memories!
Marion Cunningham's Boston Brown Bread Muffins
From The Breakfast Book
Ingredients:
1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose or whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 egg
1/3 cup molasses
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup golden raisins
Method:
Heat oven to 400 F. Grease your muffin pan. Mix together the flours, cornmeal, salt, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, combine the egg, molasses, sugar, oil, and buttermilk. Blend well. Stir the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well. The batter will be very fluid, that's OK.
Fill the prepared muffin tins 3/4 of the way and bake for 15 minutes, until your tester comes out clean. Serve hot with butter or cream cheese.
I wanted to say: how easy is that? But that's Ina and this is Donna. While we often think of the word spatchcock in reference to the preparation of a chicken (butterflying it for ease and speed of cooking), in Donna Hay speak a spatchcock is also a very young chicken. Because they are unavailable here, I substituted game hens.
You'll find this a fabulous fall or winter dish, especially when you've had a busy day. Just assemble your ingredients and throw them all together in a roasting pan. Voila! No effort at all. The chorizo gives the dish some zing and the port makes it all luscious.
Donna Hay's Roasted Spatchcocks Game Hens with Port, Mushrooms and Lentils
From Donna Hay Magazine, Issue #82
Ingredients:
4 game hens, tied
sea salt and cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups green lentils
3 dried chorizo, sliced
5 shallots, peeled and halved
4 bay leaves
1/4 cup dried porcini mushrooms
3 cups assorted mushrooms
1 1/2 cups port
5 cups hot chicken stock
Method:
Preheat oven to 475. Place all ingredients except game hens in a large deep sided roasting
pan. Place game hens on top, sprinkle with olive oil and then salt and pepper.
Roast in oven for 30 minutes* or until game hens are golden and cooked through.
*Note: That's a hot oven, but it still took mine 45 minutes. So make certain the temperature in the thickest part of the leg is 165°F and the juices run clear.
I haven't any idea why these are called Swedish, but I thought they were fun because they are a yeast bread made in muffin tins with paper muffin liners...never have done that before. There aren't any raisins in these cinnamon buns either, so if you want to add them, sprinkle them over the brown sugar before you roll up the dough. Making any kind of bread from scratch always looks like such an effort, but it isn't, really. Just takes a bit more wait time in the kitchen. Your dough hook on a stand mixer does all the work.
These aren't as decadent as Ina's sticky buns (which have the advantage of being quicker to make, albeit hideously fattening), but more like breakfast rolls without all the gooey topping. They sure were fabulous hot from the oven. Just add a bit of butter. Yum.
Is there anything better than the fragrance of fresh rolls or bread in the oven?
Swedish Cinnamon Buns
From Cakelets and Doilies
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
50 g (about 3.5 tablespoons) butter, roughly chopped
3 1/2 cups flour
1 packet active dry yeast
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 egg, beaten lightly
Filling
75 g (about 5.25 tablespoons) butter
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Topping
1 egg, beaten lightly
Pearl sugar to sprinkle Or use silvered almonds
Method:
Put the milk and ground cardamon in a small saucepan and bring to just below the boil. Take off the heat, stir in the butter and leave to infuse until the milk mixture is just warm (about 100 degrees F).
Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with hook attachment. Add warm milk mixture and egg to flour mixture. Knead on low speed until you get a smooth pliable tacky dough, about 10 minutes. The dough is ready when it starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Resist adding more flour to the mixture. The dough is very sticky.
Lightly grease your hands, and shape the dough into a ball. Place the dough in a lightly greased mixing bowl, and cover with a tea towel. Let the dough rise at room temperature until doubled in size. Depending on the temperature of your room, it can take anything between 30 mins to 1 hour. Press the dough gently with a fingertip. If the indentation remains, the dough is ready for the next step.
Meanwhile, make filling:
Melt butter and set aside. In a separate bowl, combine dark brown sugar, cinnamon and salt.
When the dough is ready, deflate the dough, cover with cling wrap and let rest for 5 minutes.
Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle roughly 24 by 10 inches. Generously brush melted butter over the dough. Sprinkle over the cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the dough, from the longer side, tightly. Place it on its seam. Cut and discard the ends. Cut roll into 12 equal slices.
Line standard cupcake/muffin pan with paper cupcake liners. Place rolls in paper liners. Cover loosely with a tea towel. Let the dough proof for the second time until double in size, about 30 mins to 1 hour. Press the dough gently with a fingertip. If the indentation remains, the dough is ready for baking.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. While waiting for the oven to heat up, brush top of each roll lightly with the beaten egg and sprinkle over silvered almonds. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Makes a dozen.
