English Muffins

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We have always loved English Muffins, but hardly ever ate them because of all the preservatives.  When I tried making my own, I wished I had done so years ago. It isn’t hard at all and only takes a few extra minutes. If you are already a baker, they will be a cinch! 

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The store bought ones pale in comparison to homemade.  You’ll have to give it a try!

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This recipe is so easy as they bake all at once in a hot oven instead of having to fry them in a pan.  I save a part of the dough from making my weekly bread. One dozen fit nicely on a large cookie sheet.  If you only have one oven and your bread is baking, you can put half the English muffin dough in a plastic bag in the fridge to roll out a little later, or you can make and bake them first while you give your bread an extra punch down.

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It is so satisfying to see the results and ever so yummy when you eat that muffin sandwich or toast.

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English Muffins

Servings: 12 muffins
Cook time: 18 minutes
Passive Time: 1 hr. 15 minutes

Ingredients:

You will need:

One recipe of a nice whole-wheat dough, see Whole-Wheat Bread  (I prefer to use white whole-wheat flour) ; approximately 12 oz. for a dozen muffins.  You do not want a stiff dough, just a nice consistency so you can handle it easily and roll out with just a light sprinkling of flour.

  • Cornmeal
  • Parchment paper
  • A large cookie sheet, preferable heavy
  • Rolling pin

Instructions:

Follow directions for making a nice whole-wheat bread dough.  After it has been mixed, let it rise and then

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Punch the dough down, but do not knead it as you want to be able to roll it out without the gluten pulling it back.
  3. Roll dough approximately 1/2″ thick.
  4. Cut with a biscuit cutter that is 3-3 ½” in diameter.*
  5. Lay parchment on cookie sheet and sprinkle lightly with cornmeal. Lay the cut muffins on top and add a little sprinkle of cornmeal on each one.  Space them so they will not touch when raised. I can get 12 on a large cookie sheet.
  6. Let them rise approximately 10-15 minutes. This depends on how warm your room is.  If they raise too long, they will become burger buns which also are delicious, but not what we’re after!
  7. Bake for 8 minutes, then remove from the oven and turn each one over. They will not be browned yet, but they will brown during the second bake.
  8. Return to oven and bake an additional 8 minutes.  After the second bake if they are not brown, you can always bake an additional 2 minutes, but you do not want them to dry out! 
  9. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. When cold and ready to use, do not cut with a knife; to separate, go all around the middle of the perimeter with a fork pressing in to reach the middle of the bun, and that will separate them. This will give it the English muffin look on the inside with all those little crumbs that toast so nicely.

Notes:

*Any scraps I have left over go with the dough reserved for making a loaf of bread.  However, if I am only making muffins with the dough, I just push the scraps together until they adhere so I can form the last one or two muffins.  This way they can be baked at the same time as the rest.  If the dough is kneaded, they would probably have to rise and bake separately.