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To celebrate its 135th anniversary, Thomas’ English Muffins and Bagels invited 135 chefs to compete in a “Hometown Breakfast Battle”—including Ryan Cunningham, our very own chef at Abbott’s on Broad Creek in Laurel.
Ryan entered a recipe for an Apple Scrapple English Muffin that pushed him into the top 10 in the first round of voting. Now, it’s our turn to help him. The contest is based on the number of votes a chef receives over the six-week, five-round contest, which ends the week of Oct. 19.
Voters can cast their ballots online once a day until a victor comes out on top. They also become eligible for prizes. There is also a monetary prize for the winning chef—$25,000. For Ryan, it’s more than a personal best to come in first in the breakfast battle.
“It’s for the state of Delaware, for scrapple, for the town of Laurel, for the staff,” he says. “It has nothing to do with me.” Ryan is looking forward to introducing more people to our local meat loaf. “I don’t know if the rest of the country knows about scrapple,” the native Delawarean says. “Now, they’ll know.”
Ryan’s recipe is included below. The restaurant is also preparing the dish if you want to stop by and try it. Ryan is proud of his staff. “They’re like family,” he says. “This is as much about them as me.” Vote early and vote often at http://www.thomasbreakfastbattle.com/recipes/apple-scrapple-english-muffin.
Apple Scrapple English Muffin
For the apple butter:
1 pound butter
3 Gala apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
1 tablespoon sugar
For the apple-onion topping:
1 tablespoon bacon fat
1 Spanish onion, julienned
1 tablespoon sugar
1 Gala apple, cored and julienned
2 bunches scallions, cut on bias
Small squeeze fresh lemon
Kosher salt to taste
For assembly:
1¼ slice Haas scrapple
1 slice white cheddar
1 farm egg
1 Thomas’ Original English Muffin
Kosher salt to taste
To make apple butter, melt butter with apples on low. Cook on very low heat until soft. Add vanilla and sugar, and blend until smooth. Refrigerate. This should make one quart and should be smooth and pliable.
To make the apple and onions, add bacon fat to pan. Sweat onions on low until soft. Add sugar and apples. Turn up heat to medium and cook until apples soften slightly, then remove from heat. Toss scallions, lemon and salt, then reserve.
Cook scrapple until crisp on flat griddle about 3 minutes on each side. Top scrapple with cheese and melt.
Cook egg to desired preference (preferably sunny side up or over easy for proper nook and cranny filling capability).
Split and toast the English muffin.
To serve, spread apple butter on muffin. Top with scrapple and cheese, apples, onions and egg. Sprinkle with sea salt.
