Today I’m going to be reviewing another great piece of outdoor cooking gear, thePetromax Muffin Tin MF6. I’m a huge fan of Petromax and really enjoying cooking with their dutch oven and love testing out their special forms of cast iron cookware. There are lots of great recipes for tasty sweet and savoury treats that you can make with this muffin tin but I have come up with my own snack that I’m going to share with you here…
Toad in the Hole is a classic British dish which I haven’t seen cooked in German brand Petromax’s cast iron cooking equipment. If you didn’t know Toad in the Hole consists of sausages in Yorkshire Pudding batter. After being inspired by lots of amazing photographs online of these muffin tins filled with bacon, I decided to add rashers of streaky bacon into the mix – creating a sort of Pigs in Blankets, Toad in the Hole. Anyway, here is the list of ingredients and the recipe:
Toad in the Hole with Bacon Recipe
- 4oz flour
- Half pint milk
- 2 eggs
- Pinch of salt
- 9 chipolata sausages
- 12 rashers of streaky bacon
We started by barbecuing the sausages over an open fire for maximum flavour. I decided to pre-cook the sausages as I was worried about not being able to get a thorough cook on the top of the muffin pan over an open fire. If I was using the muffin tin inside a dutch oven, I probably wouldn’t need to pre-grill the sausages.
While this was going on, I mixed the flour, milk, eggs and salt to make a classic batter mix. I then lightly greased the pre-heated muffin tin over the open fire and added the rashers of streaky bacon (two per muffin) in a cross shape.
When these had started to cook I then poured batter mix into each hole so that there was just a little space left at the top. With the chipolata sausages chopped in half, I added three halves to each batter filled, muffin. Then I carefully folded the protruding rashers of bacon over the top of the muffin.
What is great about the design of the Petromax Muffin Tin MF6 is that the muffins are cooked in individual sections, this allows the heat to cook from all around and give a much more even bake.
Everytime I’ve cooked with an open fire I’ve worn my Petromax Deubelskerl Loden Jacket. It’s awesome as it’s made from the natural and environmentally friendly Loden material. Furthermore it is spark-proof, wind and rain resistant and odour resistant which means when you come in at the end of the day, although not completely odourless, it still does smell much less smokey than the rest of my clothing!
It didn’t take long for the batter mixture to start rising and gain some colour. The batter rising actually pushed the sausages further out of the mix than I’d have liked. When I repeat the recipe I’ll be adding less mix into each muffin tin.
Over an open fire, although the base cooked well, with no heat from above, it took quite a long time to bake all the way through. This resulted in the Toad in the Holes being a little more crispy than I would have liked on the outside although still very delicious.
To really improve the bake from the muffin tin, it needs heat from above. This would allow the muffins to cook really evenly from all sides. The Muffin Tin Mf6 has been designed to fit inside both of the Dutch Ovens ft6 and ft9. I really think I need to get one!
I’ve been reading the Petromax Cookbook “Outdoor Cooking” and it really is full of inspiration and recipe ideas. It covers many methods of cooking outdoors including Dutch Oven, Fire Skillet, Loaf Pan and more, this is great if you, like me, enjoy variety. Carsten Bothe does a fantastic job of including detailed yet easy to follow instructions for for over 80 varied recipes in the 144 pages of the book. These recipes would suit both beginners and advanced chefs alike and includes some exciting German specialities.
