The world is still slightly against me. I have worked out that my lack of photos isn’t my cameras fault, nor the cables fault and it doesn’t even seem to be the decrepit laptop’s fault. The only deduction I can make from such things is that despite owning a lovely camera I am truly not technical.

Other world against me things at the mo;

My toe is gross

I hate the bank

My running career seems to be over again. I ended up getting really weird stitchy things all along the underside of my ribs, my knee also started to get sore again and as I say my toe exploded. Or imploded. Not sure. Gross either way.

Actually. Having written them down those issues seem pretty minor. Nice.

So. As my camera is still not cooperating this weeks post is something I made quite a while back in a fit of patience – that hasn’t been repeated. English Muffins. The recipe is from Paul Hollywood. I have to hand it to the man these little beauties are spectacular. They are worryingly airy and have a brilliantly yeasty tang. I ate them fresh with butter but you could go to town and make a fancy breakfast.

The recipe itself is a might fiddly and probably not entirely worth it unless you have an electric kneading device and patience.

The quantity makes 10 generous sized buns and from start to finish takes about two hours.

No oven here, you’ll be cooking them on the stove top. How exciting. And you’ll be needing an 8cm cutter too.

String white flour      300g

Fast-action yeast       6g

Salt                                  6g

Caster sugar                  15g

Butter (very soft)         15g

Beaten egg                      1

Full fat milk                   170ml

Oil for greasing and some extra flour for dusting.

Put everything into the bowl of a stand mixer or the like, trying to keep the yeast and salt away from each other as much as possible.

Mix it all together, using a dough hook, to form a dough and then let it knead away for a further 10mins.

I suppose, like my friend Paul says, you could do this by hand.

You’re aiming for a beautifully smooth and elastic dough so by hand you might need to knead for up to 15mins? Who knows.

Anyway.

Grease a bowl with oil and plop the kneaded dough in.

Cover it with a clean tea-towel and leave for an hour to prove. As with all professional liars it is suggested that the dough will double in size. I don’t think I’ve ever made a dough that has done so. I’m content with a fluffy, airy looking lump after a good prove in a warm area.

Tip the dough out onto a floured surface once it’s proved.

Gently roll it out to about 2.5cm thick and use your cutter to cut out your muffins.

Dust a tray with flour and place them on.

Cover them again and let them prove, somewhere cosy, for about 30mins.

Once their done heat up a large, heavy-based frying pan to a medium heat.

Don’t get lazy and try to cook them off in one giant batch unless your frying pan is enormous. Do them in two batches instead.

They’ll take 5mins on the first side, after which, flip them over carefully and cook them for another 5mins.

Because you’re not using any oil or butter keep an eye on them so they don’t start to burn. As I said at the start they are suspiciously soft when you nervously start prodding them as they cook but as long as they are nicely browned on both sides and a bit crusty you should be laughing.

Enjoy.