Valentines Eggs Benedict - Breakfast in Bed, Scratch Made.

The number one way to your Valentines heart is simple, serve them breakfast in bed. Of course if you’re not at that stage of your relationship, this might come off as a little creepy, so no sneaking in bedroom windows in the morning, Capiche? But I digress, nothing says I love you like serving your loved one in bed a delicious breakfast. And the king of breakfast? Why Eggs Benedict of course. You can use store bought English muffins but nothing beats homemade. You will be blown away at how much better they are, and they are easy too, bonus. Like any yeast bread, a little planning for the rising is in order, but most of that time you’re watching Netflix anyway. So let’s make some English muffins, and while were add it, we can really amp it up, and make them heart shaped – double love sprinkles!

P.S. Please vote for me in the Valentines Challenge if you can, My daughter would love the Touch Lamps that are the prize, as her Best friend moved to Denmark. Since we live in Northern BC, "like close to Alaska", Denmark is kinda far away. This would be a lovely way to keep in touch...

Step 1: Ingredients

English Muffins

• 2 1/2 cups white unbleached flour - not bread flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 egg white
• 1 1/2 teaspoon yeast
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• Cornmeal - about a cup or so
• 1 1/2 cup of Milk - 1% or higher fat content - not cream
• Some sort of fat for frying - lard, unsalted butter etc.

The rest is up to you,

• Eggs to poach
• Nice Ham - ready to serve - I used a thick slice of rosemary ham
• Butter
• Hollandaise - You could use a mix, Knorr's isn't to bad, or use one of many here on instructables. Check this one out, it's nice and easy. I won't cover that here myself though, scratch muffins is a good start and I don't want to overload this instructable.
• Some like poached spinach, or sub lox for the ham. Really the variations are endless.

Step 2: Starter

The dough for english muffins is super easy. The key to any dough with large craggy holes is having a very liquidy dough, similar to focaccia. It will be udder alien to those who are used to bread dough as it is more like batter, then dough.

1. Heat your honey until watery, about 30 seconds in a microwave. Add to your milk
2. Combine in a large bowl the honey milk and the yeast, mix about a bit
3. Dump your flours and salt in the center and mix, mix, mix...
4. Yes, it will look like batter more then dough, all splodgy like.
5. Slap some cling wrap over the top and let it sit for about 4-5 hours to slowly rise.

Step 3: Have a Heart

If you have large heart shaped cookie cutters about 3 inches across, by all means skip this step. Otherwise you will have to make your own. Plenty of others on instructables have made heart shaped cookie cutters using soup cans, sheet metal or what have you. I like simple, I have lots of stainless steel zap-straps that are heat safe to 1000 degrees, take bends nicely and are self joining. Start by making the bend in the center of the heart about 5 inches from the end of the connector, then simply make the heart shaped scallops on either side. You can use pliers, but after a while I stopped and just used my hands. Took about 10 minutes to bend them all. Once bent, insert the loose end in the clip and either snip off or better yet, bend back and forth several times and they snap off cleanly.

Step 4: Form and Sleep...

1. Lay out a cookie sheet with a bunch of cornmeal spread out on it.
2. Oil your heart molds, butter works well
3. With very wet hands, scoop up a small amount of dough, just barely enough to fill the molds. About 1/4 cups worth. Roll in some cornmeal and place in the center of the mold.
4. Wrap in cling wrap, or some parchment paper.
5. Now the weird, for flavorful, hole filled dough you want a slow rise. Place in the fridge for at least 12 hours and up to 4 days

Step 5: Pan Fry?

Heat a thick bottomed frying pan on medium heat to about 375 degrees and add some fat. Lard, bacon fat or butter works well and heat until foamy.

1. Add your muffin hearts to the pan and allow to cook for about 5-6 minutes per side
2. Allow to cool and pry them out of the molds, I'm not lying, it takes a little gentle persuading to free them.
3. Ta-da, Heart shaped english muffins!

Step 6: Cut Out Your Heart

These heart molds are handy for other aspects of this build. Simply stamp out your heart shaped ham slice, easy peasy!

Step 7: Poachy!

You can even use the molds to poach heart shaped eggs.

Lightly oil them first and crack an egg into the center of each mold.Add about 1/2 an inch of water and heat gently until cooked.

Step 8: Breakfast in Bed, or the Couch, or Wherever...

Crack your muffin in half with a fork and to toast until golden. Butter it, hmmmm butter.

Lay your poached egg onto the first muffin and top with ham and Hollandaise. Top with another muffin top or assemble a second one beside it, serve toasty hot and sprinkled with love, to your valentine in bed. For bonus points, lightly dust your nose with flour for that cheesy commercial “I’ve been slaving for hours look”