One thing I wish I could still eat is the simple and tasty Egg McMuffin. Think about it: Of all the fast foods you can buy, an Egg McMuffin is probably the healthiest and most real items you can get at a mainstream fast food restaurant. You know what's in it. You can't hide much. It's an English muffin, a slice of Canadian bacon, an egg, and cheese. Fake cheese, okay. But cheese.
I have tried to mimic this with some success. I had some rice buns in Japan that were good enough for mimicking English muffins. I could use one of those microwave egg poachers and then ordinary sliced ham to make a replica that was delicious enough. But what I really wished I had was an actual English muffin. *sigh*
I saw these in the store long ago but had no desire to buy them. I finally bought a pack ($6.09) with the hope that I could make some attempt at mcmuffining.
The first time I ate one of these muffins, I actually opted for jam and butter. They are already somewhat split and need to be cut the rest of the way and toasted. I was apprehensive because the muffin literally felt like drying cement as I was putting the knife through it. It was dense and heavy, and I worried that it wouldn't turn out very well.
But actually, after two rounds of toasting (real English muffins are also persnickety like this) it was crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, somewhat dense, and tasted ... like an English muffin.
I later tried it as a sandwich, and it worked quite well. Sometimes the muffins aren't split in a very symmetrical fashion, so you end up with a tiny lid and a big, heavy bottom. This is sort of a problem, but not a huge one. Overall I think they satisfy a need that we all have for living a normal life, including enjoying the various types of breads we enjoyed before and make a very good substitute.
My local gluten free store went out of business, and I could no longer find my beloved Glutino English Muffins. I picked these up, frozen, at Fred Meyers. My first impression when taking them out of the package: very heavy, like hockey pucks! Let them thaw, still hockey pucks. Very difficult to split (get a hacksaw!). Toasted on the highest setting, did not brown at all, warm hockey pucks. Covered with butter, peanut butter, & jam. Like eating sawdust. The rest went in the garbage.
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