I am fortunate to live steps away from a fantastic bakery, which supplies me with warm, fresh loaves of bread on any given weekday. I don’t buy bagged supermarket bread, because fresh is so accessible and tastes so much better. And (because I love to wrap my fingers around a smooth ball of springy dough) what I can’t get at the bakery, I make myself.
One exception to the fresh-only rule has been English muffins – why? I don’t know. But I read the ingredients list on the last bag I bought…
“Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Yeast, Salt, Wheat Gluten, Canola Oil” – this is about where I’d expect the list to end – but no, we’ve got, “glucose-fructose, calcium proprionate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium sulphate, ammonium chloride, azodicarbonamide, diacetylated tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides (??!?), calcium peroxide and ascorbic acid” in there too. Yum?
I decided that bag would be my last!
I can’t believe I had never made English muffins before. They are so easy they practically make themselves, and they blow those bagged pucks out of the preservative-laden water. I made a double batch and froze them. Now I have an eggs-benedict vehicle at the ready whenever the whim should strike.
Have you tried no-knead bread? English muffins are just as easy, but with less waiting. You simply stir the ingredients together – no kneading – and only have to wait an hour. And if you haven’t made no-knead bread, you should get on that, stat.
The dough is very sticky, you’ll need a well-floured surface. I used a 3 inch biscuit cutter to make circles, but you could just as easily use an overturned glass.
The muffins are cooked first in a cornmeal-dusted frying pan (you could simply use more flour if you don’t have cornmeal, or wheat germ) and then transferred to an oven to finish baking. Don’t skip the skillet and try to shortcut them straight to the oven – tried this, and the result was flat buns, not english muffins.
Homemade english muffins are fresh and chewy, all full of craggly crevices for melted butter to seep into. Use a fork to stab around the circumference, then pry it apart (if you use a knife, you’ll lose the nooks and crannies!).
My recipe uses some yogurt to mimic the tang of a sourdough english muffin, and also helps to make them extra soft and chewy.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup milk
- ¼ cup cold butter, cubed
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 4 cups all purpose flour (or 2 cups whole wheat, 2 cups all purpose)
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 ¼ tsp instant or rapid rise yeast
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- Cornmeal, for dusting skillet
Preparation
- In large microwave-safe measuring cup, microwave milk on high power until starting to simmer at edges, about 2 ½ minutes. Stir in cold butter until melted. When mixture has cooled to warm, stir in beaten egg and yogurt.
- Combine flour, sugar, yeast and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer. With mixer speed on low (using beater attachment), slowly add milk mixture. Beat 1 minute, until thoroughly combined. Dough will be very wet. Cover with saran wrap and place in a warm spot to rise for one hour.
- Scrape dough from bowl onto a floured work surface. Lightly flour the top of dough, and pat down until it is about ½ inch thick. Use a floured 3” biscuit cutter (or a upside-down drinking glass) to make rounds. Gather up scraps of dough and repeat. Use a floured spatula to pick up the English muffins as you go, and set them aside to rise for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F and heat a skillet (or two) over medium heat. Dust skillet generously with cornmeal. Place English muffins 1 inch apart in skillet and cook 3-4 minutes, until golden brown on bottom. Flip and cook another 3-4 minutes on other side. Transfer to baking sheet as they’re done. Once all English muffins have been browned, bake in centre of oven for 7-10 minutes, until they sound hollow when you tap their tops.
Hi Jenn! I just discovered your site here and love it. I made these English muffins for my mom while she is visiting from Vernon, BC. We needed something to slather her amazing Okanagan apricot jam on! I planned to make them early one morning and when I got my sleepy head into gear I realized only after I had put together the dough that I had only regular yeast and not rapid rise. I gave the dough a few minutes to see if it would still rise but on closer inspection I saw all the tiny beads of undissolved yeast dotting the dough. I decided to start over, proofing the regular yeast according to the jar’s directions and reducing the milk to accommodate the added liquid. It worked great – rose like a champ in an hour – and were delicious. I just wanted to pass this on in case anyone else found themselves with a English muffin craving and only regular yeast.
Also when I was taking my organic waste out I saw that the discarded dough finally did rise. I believe it grows still out in my green bin. It make take over Toronto….
Great tip, thanks Andy! P.S. Mmm.. I am SO JEALOUS of your mom’s Okanagan apricot jam.
These were simply AMAZING. I followed the recipe to a T and they were PERFECT. Never will buy a store muffin again…ever.
Any suggestions of what to do if you don’t have a standing mixer?
You can do it by hand with a big bowl and a wooden spoon!
I was really excited to try making English muffins on my own, so I tackled your recipe here. The only adjustment I made was using 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 2 of AP flour. Also, my biscuit cutter (glass) was maybe more like 2 inches than three. The muffins didn’t come out quite as fluffy as I was thinking they would. It could have been that my old hand mixer didn’t mix the dough well enough (it got so sticky!!), or that I didn’t let it rise long enough…but I’ll give it another shot in the future. Did you ever try this recipe with whole wheat flour?
Hi. 🙂
We LOVE english muffins and we can’t get them here (Italy), so I was thrilled when I saw your recipe.
I prepared this last Sunday and we had a wonderful breakfast. The english muffins were just perfect! It had that added dream like feeling that you get when you eat that perfect and simple food you usually don’t get to eat, so I am not sure I am being objective.
I froze some, and I realized afterward that I should have cut them before freezing them.
We will be making this again soon.
Thanks for the recipe. You are welome for breakfast anytime. 🙂
Hi Juli! Thank you for the lovely note, I’m so happy my english muffins could bring something special to your breakfast table in Italy! And that invitation is very tempting… 🙂
Very good recipe! Light and fluff, especially if you proof them for even longer than the recommended 20 minutes. At least as tasty as store-bought and like you say, minus all the preservatives.
Thanks for the tip, Evan! I’ll try next time with a longer proof. I do love the convenience of how fast they are though!
This recipe is fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing!! I would have to agree, watching the english muffins puff up and turn golden brown was perty exciting 🙂 Thanks again!
Glad you enjoyed, Emily!!!! 🙂
Made these tonight, with awesome results! I did make one change, I swapped the yogurt for sour cream, as that is what I had on hand. They were so easy to make, and the results are worth it. I loved the whole process, especially watching them puff up ever so slowly on the griddle. Thank you for sharing!
Isn’t it so satisfying to make your own? I’m so glad you had awesome results!! 🙂
Made these tonight, and they are ridiculously good. The only change I made, was a swap of light sour cream in place of the yogurt. I had it on hand, and the store only had 32 oz containers of containers of yogurt. They are so easy to make and and about a million times better than something from the store. Thank you for sharing!
I just made it and it’s so good and so easy to make. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks for coming back to comment, so glad you enjoyed! 🙂